Analysis of the ZKJ Crash Event: What is the Future Trend After the Market Fluctuation of ZKJ?

On June 15, the governance token ZKJ of Polyhedra Network plummeted by 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 Crash: Full Analysis

• Lightning-fast withdrawal and sell-off: According to an initial report from Polyhedra, multiple addresses carried out a coordinated attack on the ZKJ/KOGE trading pair on PancakeSwap: first, they withdrew over $7.7 million in liquidity, and then initiated “abnormal on-chain transactions” to sell ZKJ. This operation resulted in the already fragile liquidity of the trading pair being depleted, and the selling pressure quickly transmitted to the main trading pool of ZKJ.
• Whales stir the waters: 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 holding from 3.41 million to 22,000, simultaneously intensifying 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: Price flash crash triggers a wave of forced liquidations across major exchanges. A single $7.15 million ZKJ long position was liquidated on the Bybit platform, with a total liquidation amount of $99 million in the entire market within 4 hours, accounting for 81.3% of the total liquidation amount in cryptocurrencies during the same period, setting a record for the highest single currency liquidation ratio this year.

##Urgent Response from Market Participants: Responsibility Game and Rule Reshaping

• Attribution controversy: Polyhedra co-founder Tiancheng Xie publicly accused the KOGE team of “cheating the ecology”, but KOGE quickly retorted that it “never promised not to sell its treasury holdings” and pointed the finger at Polyhedra’s “air project” nature. Wintermute has not publicly responded to the sell-off.
• Exchange risk control upgrade: Binance urgently adjusted the calculation rules for Alpha Points after the incident, announcing that as of June 17, the trading volume of Alpha token pairs (such as ZKJ/KOGE) will no longer count towards point rewards, in order to reduce systemic risks arising from liquidity concentration.
• Self-rescue actions by the project party: The Polyhedra team injected an equivalent of 30 million USD in USDT, USDC, and BNB to PancakeSwap to stabilize liquidity, but due to a rapid price drop, all related assets were exchanged for ZKJ, and they are currently holding a large amount of depreciated tokens.

##Price Prediction Divergence Intensifies: Short-term Pressure and Long-term Game

short-term bearish sentiment dominates

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

long-term prediction polarization

• Conservative model (based on user sentiment and historical fluctuations): MEXC predicts an average price of 0.3908 USD in 2025, a slight increase to 0.4103 USD in 2026, and it is expected to break through 1.32 USD by 2050.
• Optimistic Technical Analysis: Some institutions have given aggressive valuations based on the potential applications of zero-knowledge proof technology—reaching $4.94 in 2025 (+1165%) and aiming for $22.9 in 2029. The supporting logic includes the underlying technological value of Polyhedra in the field of cross-chain interoperability.
• Compromise prediction: Coindataflow integrates market liquidity risks and expects ZKJ to fluctuate between 0.305 and 0.700 USD in 2025, potentially rising to 1.42 USD by 2029, but this is contingent on the project team’s rebuilding of trust.

##Investor Strategy Suggestions: Survival Rules in a High Volatility Market The recent ZKJ incident has revealed three major risk points of emerging tokens: the fragility of liquidity pools, the unpredictability of whale behavior, and the chain effects of derivatives leverage. For holders and cautious investors:

• Short-term: Focus on the key support level of 0.40 dollars. If it breaks down with volume, be wary of further downside; a rebound needs to stabilize above 0.70 dollars to confirm a repair signal.
• Medium to Long Term: Closely monitor the technical implementation progress and token unlocking plan (if any) of the Polyhedra team. If its core products such as zkBridge gain mainstream adoption, it may drive value reassessment.
• Industry Level: This event has accelerated exchanges’ risk control review of “small-cap token leveraged trading.”

##Future Outlook There is no shortage of black swans in the crypto market, but every crisis is pushing the industry to build more robust financial genes. ZKJ’s collapse is seen not so much as a failure of a technology project as a stress test of the evolution of market mechanisms.

Currently, ZKJ is at a critical stage of “trust reconstruction”. Whether its price can reverse depends not only on the advancement of the technical roadmap but also on whether the team can establish a transparent market maker collaboration mechanism and a liquidity protection network. For high-risk tolerant investors, strictly controlling position ratios and stop-loss discipline remains the core principle to weather the storm.

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