Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash fell 11% over the past 24 hours to a market capitalization of $18.5 billion, according to Decrypt data. Zcash was one of the day's biggest losers. CoinGlass data showed $17.9 million in Zcash long positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours. Hyperliquid recorded $7.3 million in long liquidations over the same period.
CoinShares senior researcher Luke Nolan said Zcash remained up 460% from the cryptocurrency's March lows despite the decline. Nolan said the largest gainers also tend to suffer losses in a fragile crypto market. Nolan said Zcash's strong rally attracted more perpetual futures traders and increased leverage. Nolan said leverage amplified price movements when traders were forced to reduce exposure or were liquidated.
Some experts suggested concerns that AI could break crypto encryption before quantum computers may have contributed to Zcash's losses. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned last week that the industry needs to prepare for that possibility. OpenAI's announcement of major progress in mathematics sparked the discussion and concerns about the future of encryption. Dialectic founder and director Ryan Zurrer said OpenAI's mathematics breakthroughs caused concern because of a conspicuous lack of cryptographic proofs. Zurrer said complex privacy protocols such as Zcash have the most to lose from a previously unknown vulnerability if AI-driven attacks render core cryptographic primitives obsolete.
Zcash has aggressively pursued efforts to make the network resistant to quantum computing attacks. Zcash full node developer Zakura recently said Zakura's team expects to be quantum-proofed and reasonably AI-proofed by January. HashKey senior researcher Tim Sun said Zcash's quantum-resistant roadmap was a key catalyst for the recent rally. Sun said actual implementation remained some distance away. Sun said the roadmap reflected the market's continued focus on the privacy sector since the beginning of this year.
Sun said demand for privacy will continue to rise as traditional finance merges with the crypto industry. Sun said privacy protection will become a fundamental prerequisite for financial institutions adopting blockchain technology as more traditional financial assets and operations move onto blockchains.
French lawmakers advanced a proposal last week that would require citizens to report crypto holdings equal to or above €100,000 ($112,000), or face a penalty. The proposal received significant backlash following a wave of crypto-related physical attacks, robberies and kidnappings across France. The proposal has not become law, but some people have turned their attention to privacy protocols amid looming government oversight.
However, Nolan said the French proposal had little to do with Zcash's decline. Nolan characterized the decline as a larger pullback following Zcash's sharp rise. Nolan said the drawdown exceeded 35% but remained small compared with the preceding increase on the daily chart.