ZRC, the native token of the Ethereum Layer-2 network Zircuit, rose more than 19% after listing on a prominent centralized exchange.
Zircuit (ZRC) rose to $0.079 on January 13, rallying 24.8 from the weekly low of $0.063, while taking its market cap to over $160 million at the time of writing. The altcoin’s price increase came as daily trading volume jumped 69%, from $32 million early Monday morning to more than $56.8 million.
ZRC’s sharp rally on Monday followed a announcement from Bithumb, a major South Korea-based crypto exchange, that it would list the altcoin on its platform on January 13 with a KRW trading pair.
Listings on popular exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb have often led to sharp increases in the associated crypto assets. However, it is important to note that pre-listing rallies often experience a reversal as investors typically sell their investments in a ‘sell the news’ scenario.
An example of this can be seen in Safe Wallet’s SAFE token, which rose 20% before its listing on Bithumb on January 10, as previously reported by crypto.news. However, the altcoin has since reversed most of its gains and is now down 15.8% from its intraday high on the day of the announcement.
The listing also positioned ZRC as one of the most popular tokens on CoinGecko.
ZRC’s recent rally has also gained momentum thanks to a surge in demand among derivatives traders. Facts from CoinGlass shows that open interest for ZRC on the futures market rose 115% in the past day, reaching $10.98 million – substantially higher than the $981,000 recorded in January.
Many investors’ interest in ZRC is also driven by the impressive growth in the DeFi sector. According to DeFiLlamaZircuit’s total value has risen to $725 million at the time of writing, far exceeding the $256 million recorded at the end of 2024. Most of the TVL is currently held in strike protocol.
However, one potential area of concern remains for ZRC as a greater proportion of traders appear to be shifting their holdings onto exchanges, potentially creating selling pressure and risking a reversal of recent gains. About $3.35 million worth of ZRC was sent to centralized exchanges on January 13, compared to $3.28 million withdrawn, according to CoinGlass data.
ZRC has already given up most of its recent gains, falling 12.4% from its intraday high of $0.6994 at the time of writing.
Will ZRC continue its rally?
However, technical indicators suggest that the ZRC could resume its rally soon. On the daily chart, the price of the altcoin has risen above the middle Bollinger Band to $0.71, indicating a possible shift back to a bullish trend. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator supports this outlook, with the MACD line pointing upward and about to cross the signal line, a sign of bullish reversal in technical analysis.
As such, ZRC could potentially retest the psychological resistance level of $0.8, which the altcoin struggled to break through in late December. However, if bearish sentiment prevails, it could push the price towards the $0.064 support level.
At the time of writing, the altcoin remains 24.4% below its all-time high of $0.097 recorded in November last year.
