Crypto market today: Stablecoins grow as Bitcoin holds $80K; Zcash jumps

Bitcoin traded around the $80,000 mark this week after briefly climbing above $82,000 and encountering resistance. Ethereum and Solana posted smaller gains while major U.S. equity indexes reached multiple intraday highs. Precious metals and copper finished the week higher.

Stablecoins reached a combined market capitalization of about $321 billion. On-chain and industry estimates project large growth in stablecoin transaction volume over the next decade, with one analysis projecting $735 trillion by 2035. Market participants expanded stablecoin use cases: Coinbase introduced USDC pairs for gold and silver perpetual contracts, Polygon Wallet added a private stablecoin transfer feature and Kraken acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Reap for about $600 million. Tether Gold’s XAUt reached a $3.3 billion market cap in Q1.

Privacy-focused tokens saw notable price moves. Zcash jumped 70% over the past 30 days and about 1,300% year-over-year. Multicoin Capital has been building a Zcash position since February, with the firm’s managing partner calling Zcash “a return to the cypherpunk ideals crypto was founded on.” Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert wrote, “Difficult to ban what you can’t see. Zcash is freedom money.” Monero showed similar positive price action.

Market discussion touched on shifts in Bitcoin demand. Some analysts argued corporate treasuries, rather than exchange-traded funds, may now represent the primary marginal buyer. ETF flows helped broaden institutional access to Bitcoin, while corporate treasury purchases would reflect companies adding Bitcoin to balance sheets.

Ethereum-related reporting focused on its role as infrastructure for tokens and decentralized applications. One market strategist suggested valuing Ethereum by the array of services that would disappear if its network stopped functioning, including stablecoins, decentralized finance, layer-2 networks and non-fungible tokens. On-chain data indicated a prominent investor had staked a large portion of his ETH and could be earning significant rewards, and that Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation had sold over $100 million in ETH in recent months. Solana’s co-founder warned that some Ethereum layer-2 networks may not be quantum-resistant.

Operational and competitive developments affected exchanges and service providers. Coinbase experienced a six-hour outage linked to an AWS data center overheating and announced workforce reductions of about 14%, citing market conditions and a strategic refocus on artificial intelligence initiatives. Traditional financial firms adjusted fees for retail crypto trading, prompting one ETF analyst to call the pricing changes “shots fired.”

Security and legal issues persisted. Bridge exploits continued to occur, and the KelpDAO/LayerZero controversy remained unresolved. Lawyers representing victims of DPRK-linked hacks are seeking recovery of ETH that a platform froze after a major exploit. Critics and some industry participants urged preference for simpler custody arrangements and canonical assets over complex multisignature bridge setups.

Developments in tokenized markets continued. Event trading platform Kalshi reached a reported $22 billion valuation, and an agreement was announced under which Bullish would acquire transfer agent Equiniti for about $4.2 billion as part of tokenized securities efforts.

Market participants cited volatile commodity prices, geopolitical events and a renewed focus on AI investments as factors influencing capital flows into crypto. Those dynamics corresponded with concentrated gains in stablecoins and select privacy and infrastructure tokens rather than a broad-based altcoin rally.