Binance's ZEC/USDT daily chart on TradingView shows ZEC still trading more than 360% above its early-June low near $247, even after the latest pullback. So far, the decline has cleared only a small fraction of the leverage built up across the market.

Resistance at the 50-Day SMA

Earlier this week, ZEC snapped back from the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement with the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) as the obvious target. The average acted as resistance: the rally's candle left a long upper wick right at the line, a sign that sellers were waiting there. The slide since has pulled price back toward the same floor it bounced from.

$22.8 Million in Liquidations, but Most Leverage Remains

The damage showed up first in the futures market. About $22.8 million in ZEC futures positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, mostly longs, according to CoinGlass. Over the same window, ZEC fell roughly 7% as Bitcoin briefly slipped below $80,000.

The liquidation total sounds large until it is set against the size of the market. With open interest near $2.25 billion, the latest flush cleared only about 1% of outstanding futures positions, meaning leverage has barely been reset. Open interest measures the total value of futures contracts still standing, so nearly all of that leveraged exposure remains in the market as price returns to the 0.382 floor.

The rest of the data shows how much ZEC trading now runs through derivatives. Futures volume came to about $5.3 billion over the past day, roughly 15 times the $340 million traded on spot markets, and open interest equals around 12% of ZEC's $19.5 billion market cap.

That positioning cuts both ways. If the 0.382 floor breaks, a large pool of leveraged longs sits in the path of the decline and could add forced selling to it. If the floor holds and price turns up, the same heavy positioning could speed the move higher as shorts are forced to cover.

ZEC vs. XRP: Same Retreat, Different Damage

Today's XRP chart makes a useful comparison. Both coins are pulling back from late-summer highs, but the damage looks very different.

The order of the averages is the same on both charts, with the 50-day above the 100-day and the 100-day above the 200-day. What differs is how much of that structure price has given up. ZEC's pullback has also stopped at a much shallower point, with the 0.5 and 0.618 levels below it still untested, which suggests buyers are stepping in earlier. A break of the 0.382 would put those untouched 0.5 and 0.618 retracements in focus as the next measured levels, with the 100-day and 200-day averages sitting lower in the moving-average stack.

Where the Levels Sit

Chart note: daily ZEC/USDT candles from Binance on TradingView, with the latest candle still open. Fibonacci levels run from the early-June low to the September peak. Derivatives figures are a CoinGlass snapshot from Saturday afternoon (UTC) and update in real time.

Momentum and the Bear Case

RSI sits near 45, a touch below its signal line and the 50 midpoint. That reading points to an orderly pause rather than heavy selling, and a move back above 50 would put momentum back on the buyers' side.

The bear case: this is the second test of the 0.382 in less than a week, and the first bounce stalled well short of the 0.236. A floor that keeps getting revisited gives bulls less room for error. If it gives way, the open question is how much of the remaining $2.25 billion in leverage gets cleared with it.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency prices are volatile.