Zcash Claims the Green Crown as $BTC Clears $83,000

Zcash led a broad crypto rebound on Tuesday, rising 8.5% in 24 hours to $1,215.85 and lifting its market capitalization to $20.57 billion. Bitcoin ($BTC) gained 1.57% to $83,195, while Ethereum ($ETH) climbed 2.90% to $2,463.35, as nearly every major crypto asset that is not a stablecoin finished the day higher.

Total crypto market capitalization rose 1.68% to $2.78 trillion. The CMC20 index, which tracks the 20 largest cryptocurrencies, gained 1.45% to $169.87 per unit, indicating that smaller market-capitalization assets played a more relevant role in the surge after days of heavy losses, especially among coins with the largest market capitalizations and the highest trading volume.

The advance followed a rebound in technology shares: chip and AI stocks recovered Monday from last week's selloff, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining about 1.1%. Crypto has often moved in step with technology shares. Bitcoin also found buyers near $80,000 to $81,000, while Bitcoin and other crypto exchange-traded funds, which let investors hold the assets through a regular brokerage account, recorded net inflows of $526.7 million. Monday's inflows were the biggest in a month as money from traditional investors helped.

Treasury yields remain the main pressure point, with the 10-year note above 5%. A yield is the annual return investors demand for lending to the U.S. government, and higher yields make safe bonds compete with riskier assets such as crypto and stocks for the same money. Brent crude oil trades near $110 a barrel, with expensive oil feeding inflation by raising the cost of fuel, shipping and goods. Higher inflation raises the odds that the Federal Reserve keeps rates high or raises them again, pushing bond yields up; higher yields pull money out of risk assets, so crypto tends to fall when oil spikes and rise when it cools.

Zcash's outsized move followed a decline of about 25% over the past month. Traders who had borrowed to bet on higher prices were already forced out through liquidations, in which an exchange automatically closes a borrowed-money position after losses reach a set limit, adding selling pressure. With that selling spent, the price had room to snap back. Developers are due to decide on the NU7 network upgrade today, and traders often buy ahead of such events. Privacy coins have also been strong lately, with Monero up 15.29% over seven days to $609.87.

As a high-beta asset that moves harder than the market in both directions, Zcash was up 8.5% today compared with Bitcoin's 1.57% gain. It was up only 1.17% over the last seven days, so the day's jump had not erased the month's decline. Crypto market sentiment was broadly neutral, while the Fear & Greed Index serves as a 0-to-100 gauge of market mood.