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BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
06/06/2026

Ethereum Plunges to 13-Month Low Amid Zcash Bug and BTC Slide

What happened: ETH dropped to ~$1,540 on June 5, its lowest since May 2025, triggering ~$1.

Ethereum Plunges to 13-Month Low Amid Zcash Bug and BTC Slide

What happened: ETH dropped to ~$1,540 on June 5, its lowest since May 2025, triggering ~$1.3B in ETH derivatives liquidations. The selloff was catalyzed by Bitcoin breaking below $60K and the public disclosure of a critical Zcash Orchard circuit vulnerability, which had gone undetected since 2022. The bug, discovered by Taylor Hornby using Anthropic's Opus 4.8 model, allowed for unlimited counterfeit ZEC in shielded pools. Emergency forks were deployed to fix the issue, and ZEC prices fell over 30% (with some trackers showing -38% to -50%), resulting in $100M+ in liquidations. DeFi protocols like Spark and Ether.fi saw TVL contractions of 39–50%.

Why it matters: The Zcash bug was never exploited, but its disclosure compounded already negative crypto sentiment driven by macro risk-off. The technical fix was swift, but the reputational damage to privacy coins and associated DeFi protocols was significant. The cascading liquidations highlight the fragility of DeFi markets during periods of high volatility and security scares.

Source: Cointelegraph