Zcash price slumps as Ethereum plans stealth addresses and ZK privacy features

Zcash price has crashed this year, erasing most of the gains made last year as profit-taking continued and as competition fears rise.

Zcash (ZEC) token dropped to a low of $250 on Friday, down by 66% from its highest level in November last year. This crash has brought its market capitalization from nearly $12 billion to the current $4.21 billion.

The ongoing Zcash price crash aligns with the broader crypto market plunge that has affected Bitcoin and other top altcoins like Ethereum and Cardano. 

At the same time, there are concerns that competition is rising in the privacy industry. The biggest competition will come from Ethereum, which plans to launch stealth addresses as part of the ERC-5565.

Stealth addresses aim to solve a key challenge that has existed for many years, where Ethereum transactions are public. As a result, sender and receiver data will now become private, a strategy that emulates Zcash’s shielded addresses.

Ethereum is also working on a strategy to implement zero-knowledge proofs in the layer-1 network, which will improve its privacy features

Cardano, on the other hand, is working on Midnight, a zero-knowledge proof-based sidechain that will have advanced features. The mainnet launch will happen in March this year.

Meanwhile, data compiled by CoinGlass shows that Zcash’s futures open interest has dropped in the past few months, a sign that its demand has waned. It has dropped to $377 million from last year’s high of over $1.38 billion.

Zcash price technical analysis 

The weekly chart shows that the Zcash price remained in a narrow range between the key support and resistance levels at $15 and $85, respectively. This consolidation was part of the accumulation phase of the Wyckoff Theory.

It then surged and moved to a high of $745 as part of the mark-up phase. Therefore, the ongoing retreat is part of the markdown and distribution of the Wyckoff Theory.

It has now moved below the key support level at $385, its highest level in May 2021. Also, it has moved below the 50-week and 100-week Exponential Moving Averages.

ZEC price is also forming a bearish pennant pattern, a popular continuation sign in technical analysis. Therefore, the most likely scenario is where it continues falling, potentially to the next key support level at $200.