Zcash price has confirmed a bearish setup after it broke down below a descending broadening wedge formed on the chart.

According to data from crypto.news, Zcash (ZEC) fell sharply on Thursday, Jan. 8, dropping to an intraday low of $412 at press time. The privacy coin has fallen 15.4% in the past 24 hours and lies 23% below its December high last year.

Zcash’s steep fall today comes after Josh Swihart, the CEO of Electric Coin Company (ECC), which developed Zcash, disclosed that he, along with the entire ECC team, has split from Bootstrap, the nonprofit supporting the Zcash ecosystem.

Swihart said they took the decision as the Bootstrap board’s direction no longer aligned with Zcash’s mission, and working under the new terms had become impossible.

“This decision is simply about protecting our team’s work from malicious governance actions that have made it impossible to honor ECC’s original mission,” Swihart said.

Following the departure, the former ECC staff have teamed up to form a new company with plans to continue building private digital money, but outside the Bootstrap structure.

While the incident should not affect the Zcash protocol, which is open source and decentralized, investors have likely turned cautious as they await further clarity.

Withering demand from derivative traders has also weakened Zcash price. Data from CoinGlass shows that Zcash Futures open interest has fallen below the $1 billion mark, down from $1.33 billion recorded in late December. 

Additionally, the long/short ratio has dropped to 0.85, suggesting that more traders are starting to lean toward bearish bets rather than going long.

The broader market sell-off has not helped either, with most cryptocurrencies experiencing a pullback after rallying higher earlier this week. The drawdown began after Bitcoin (BTC) failed to breach the resistance around $94,500, a level it failed to break multiple times through December.

Zcash price analysis

On the daily chart, Zcash has broken below the lower trendline of a descending broadening wedge that has been in place since late December. While this pattern is typically viewed as a bullish reversal signal, a break to the downside effectively invalidates the setup and suggests a continuation of the current bearish momentum.

The bear case is further supported by several key indicators:

• MACD divergence: The MACD lines are trending downward alongside growing red histograms, a telltale sign that selling pressure is accelerating.
• Capital outflows: The Chaikin Money Flow has plummeted to -0.37, indicating that significant capital is exiting the token.

If Zcash fails to hold the $391–$404 support range, which provided a strong floor throughout December, it risks a drop toward its Dec. 3 low of $300. Such a move would represent a roughly 27% decline from current levels, potentially resetting the market to levels not seen since early last quarter.

At the time of writing, ZEC price was hovering a little over $400.