Zcash drops 19% as bitcoin slips below $90,000

Crypto prices took another step lower, with bitcoin slipping under the $90,000 mark and several large tokens falling with it. For everyday investors, the move shows how quickly stress in the broader crypto market can spread from bitcoin into smaller coins, while project-specific news can make individual tokens move much more sharply.

Bitcoin fell 2% to $89,900, while ether dropped 3% to $3,100. Solana also declined 3% to $134, and XRP fell 7% to $2.08.

Zcash, the privacy-focused token that trades under the ticker ZEC, had the biggest named move in the update. ZEC fell 19% after the project’s developer team resigned following a dispute with the board. The team said it plans to form a new company and keep working on the project’s mission.

That kind of governance split matters because crypto projects often depend on a small group of developers to maintain code, ship upgrades and coordinate technical decisions. If that group separates from the current governing structure, investors may reassess execution risk: the chance that a project’s plans get delayed, changed or disrupted.

Stablecoin infrastructure keeps drawing banks

While tokens weakened, traditional finance companies continued to move into crypto payment infrastructure. JPMorgan announced plans to launch its JPM Coin on the Canton Network.

Barclays invested in Ubyx, a U.S. stablecoin settlement startup. The investment backs infrastructure designed to let regulated institutions move digital money across different issuers and wallets.

A stablecoin is a digital token designed to track the value of another asset, often the U.S. dollar. Settlement means the final transfer of money between parties. In plain English, these projects are trying to make tokenized dollars easier for banks and regulated firms to send, receive and hold across multiple platforms.

Wyoming also introduced its first state-issued stablecoin, called the Frontier Stable Token, and made it available to the public. World Liberty Financial’s subsidiary applied for a national trust bank charter, with the goal of issuing and custodying its USD1 stablecoin under a federal regulatory framework. Custody means holding assets on behalf of customers.

Policy and network reliability stay in focus

In Washington, the Senate Banking Committee faces rising pressure ahead of a key vote next week on crypto market structure legislation. Market structure rules would set clearer lines for how crypto assets are traded, overseen and classified in U.S. markets.

Network reliability also remained a live issue. Starknet suffered a multi-hour outage caused by a block production bug. Block production is the process that adds new batches of transactions to a blockchain. The network paused, rolled back and later resumed operations.

Among the top movers named in the update, LIT, WLFI and XMR each rose 3%. Their gains stood out against a weaker session for the larger crypto assets, but the broader tone remained pressured as bitcoin traded below $90,000.

This story draws on original reporting from Decrypt.