ZRC token price jumps 20% after Bithumb listing amid $90M volume surge
ZRC gains 25% weekly low as TVL nears $700M
As the cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by 5% to $3.14 trillion within 24 hours and most cryptocurrencies saw losses, the Ethereum Layer 2 token Zircuit (ZRC) experienced a nearly 20% surge on January 13. At the time of writing, ZRC had lost most of its daily gains but maintained a positive trend.
The sudden rise in ZRC was triggered by an announcement from major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, which stated that starting January 13, the altcoin would be listed on its platform with a trading pair against the Korean won.
The increased interest in Zircuit pushed its price to nearly $0.080, marking a 25% jump from its weekly low of $0.063, while its market capitalization exceeded $160 million. Daily trading volume for ZRC, according to CoinMarketCap, more than tripled from $28 million on Monday morning to over $90 million.
Pros and cons of exchange listings
Listings on popular South Korean exchanges like Upbit and Bithumb often lead to sharp rallies in crypto assets. However, such effects are difficult to predict as many investors tend to sell their assets "on the news," causing altcoins to experience sharp declines.
In ZRC's case, the heightened interest was linked to its strong growth since the beginning of the year. According to DeFiLlama, Zircuit's Total Value Locked (TVL) increased from $256 million to $695 million, with the majority of the value locked in staking.
Price dynamics of the ZRC token on January 13, 2025. Source: CoinMarketCap
This factor appears to have helped ZRC maintain its value, even as token holders moved a significant portion of their assets to exchanges later in the day, pushing its price below $0.070. At the time of writing, ZRC was trading around $0.069, over 2% higher than at the start of the day. This is a respectable performance compared to the 5-9% daily losses seen by most altcoins.
Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, announced an undisclosed investment in Zircuit, a developer specializing in zero-knowledge (zk) rollups with AI-enabled security.
