The Full Analysis Of The ZKJ Crash: What Is The Future Trend Of ZKJ After The Market Shock?

On June 15, the governance token ZKJ of Polyhedra Network plummeted 83% within 9 hours, dropping from $1.92 to $0.32, with nearly $500 million in market value evaporating instantly. This black swan event not only triggered a cascade of liquidations exceeding $99 million but also exposed the fatal weakness of emerging tokens in liquidity management.

Liquidity Attack Triggers Market Collapse: Full Analysis of the Incident

• Lightning Withdrawals and Sell-offs: According to the preliminary report from Polyhedra, multiple addresses in PancakeSwap A coordinated attack was launched against the ZKJ/KOGE trading pair: first, over $7.7 million in liquidity was concentratedly withdrawn, followed by a wave of “abnormal on-chain transactions” to sell ZKJ. This operation led to the already fragile liquidity of the trading pair being exhausted, with selling pressure quickly transmitting to the main ZKJ trading pool.
• Whales fanned the flames: the market maker Wintermute transferred 3.39 million ZKJ to centralized exchanges within 90 minutes before and after the price crash, reducing its on-chain address holdings from 3.41 million to 22,000, further intensifying the selling pressure. During this period, the price of ZKJ plummeted from $1.93 to $0.29, a drop of over 80%.
• Derivatives market chain liquidation: the price flash crash triggered a wave of forced liquidations across major exchanges. A single $7.15 million ZKJ long position was liquidated on the Bybit platform, and the total liquidation amount in the market reached $99 million within 4 hours, accounting for 81.3% of the total cryptocurrency liquidation volume during the same period, setting a record for the highest proportion of single cryptocurrency liquidations this year.

Market Responses: Responsibility Game and Rule Restructuring

• Dispute over Responsibility: Polyhedra co-founder Tiancheng Xie publicly accused the KOGE team of “harming the ecosystem,” but the KOGE side quickly rebutted that they “never promised not to sell the treasury holdings” and pointed the finger at the “air project” nature of Polyhedra. Wintermute has yet to publicly respond to the sell-off.
• Exchange Risk Control Upgrade: Binance urgently adjusted the Alpha Points calculation rules after the incident, announcing that starting from June 17, the trading volume of Alpha token trading pairs (such as ZKJ/KOGE) would no longer count towards points rewards to reduce systemic risks brought by liquidity concentration.
• Self-Rescue Actions by Project Teams: The Polyhedra team injected the equivalent of 30 million USD in USDT, USDC, and BNB into PancakeSwap to stabilize liquidity, but due to a rapid price drop, all related assets were exchanged for ZKJ, leaving them with a large amount of devalued tokens.

Price Prediction Discrepancies Widen: Short-Term Pressure and Long-Term Game

Short-Term Bearish Sentiment Dominates

As of June 18, ZKJ is currently priced at $0.3908, with technical indicators showing a clear bearish pattern. Of the 31 technical indicators, 93.94% are signaling a bearish trend, and the 50-day and 200-day moving averages have both dipped to $0.931 and $1.79, respectively, forming strong resistance levels. Although the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has hit a low of 14.77, entering the oversold zone, the MACD still indicates that the downward momentum persists.

Long-term Forecast Polarization

• Conservative Model (based on user sentiment and historical volatility): MEXC predicts an average price of $0.3908 in 2025, slightly rising to $0.4103 in 2026, with hopes of breaking through $1.32 by 2050.
• Optimistic Technical Analysis: Some institutions provide aggressive valuations based on the application prospects of zero-knowledge proof technology—potentially reaching $4.94 in 2025 (+1165%) and aiming for $22.9 in 2029. The supporting logic includes the underlying technological value of Polyhedra in cross-chain interoperability.
• Compromise Prediction: Coindataflow, considering market liquidity risks, estimates that ZKJ will fluctuate in the range of $0.305 – $0.700 in 2025, possibly rising to $1.42 in 2029, but this is contingent on the project’s team rebuilding trust.

Investor Strategy Recommendations: Survival Rules in a High Volatility Market

The recent ZKJ incident has revealed three major risk points for emerging tokens: the vulnerability of liquidity pools, the unpredictability of whale behavior, and the leveraged chain effects of derivatives. For token holders and cautious investors:

• Short term: Pay attention to the critical support level at $0.40, and if it breaks with volume, remain alert for further declines; a rebound must stabilize above $0.70 to confirm a repair signal.
• Medium to long term: Closely track the technical implementation progress and token unlocking plans (if any) from the Polyhedra team. If their core products such as zkBridge gain mainstream adoption, it may drive a revaluation of value.
• Industry level: This incident has accelerated exchanges’ risk control reviews on “small-cap token leveraged trading.”

Future Outlook

The crypto market is never short of black swans, but each crisis propels the industry to build a more robust financial gene. The plunge of ZKJ should be viewed not as a failure of its technical project, but rather as a necessary stress test in the evolution of market mechanisms.

Currently, ZKJ is in a critical stage of “trust reconstruction.” Its price reversal depends not only on the advancement of the technical roadmap but also on whether the team can establish a transparent mechanism for market maker collaboration and a liquidity safety net. For high-risk tolerant investors, strictly controlling position ratios and stop-loss discipline remains the core principle for weathering the storm.