Why is crypto crashing on Wednesday, November 11？ The sell-off that began with Tuesdays hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report has carried into today, and almost every major coin is lower.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $73,000 on Tuesday, touching $72,727 on Binance, and now trades at about $73,800. Ether (ETH) briefly slipped to $2,006, while XRP and Solana (SOL) are down 2% to 3% in 24 hours. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a daily gauge of market mood from 0 to 100, has fallen to 29.
The report changed what traders expect from the Federal Reserve. Bond yields jumped, and bets on a larger December rate hike nearly tripled within two hours.
One coin is falling much harder than the rest. Zcash (ZEC) is a cryptocurrency launched in 2016 that lets users hide the sender, the receiver and the amount of a payment. It dropped below $1,000 on Wednesday for the first time since September 5. ZEC now trades at about $966, down 15.4% in 24 hours and 24.8% in a week.
ZEC has been one of this years best performers. It rose from about $526 on January 1 to a closing high of $1,653 on September 26. We checked the 20 largest coins on Binance, and ZEC fell the most over both the day and the week, even though it is still up 89% in 2026.
$ZEC has dropped below $1,000!
Trader 0x8742 opened a 10x long on 18,000 $ZEC ($17.63M) and is now down over $2.8M.
Liquidation price: $895.46.https://t.co/azzt3xvmay pic.twitter.com/wczndt7doC
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) November 11, 2026
So why are the markets spooked, and why is ZEC taking the hardest hit？
Asking Why Is Crypto Crashing？ Start With Tuesdays CPI Report
Inflation came in hot. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% in October, above the 0.3% economists expected. Core prices, which leave out food and energy, rose 0.3% against a 0.2% forecast.
That reading crossed a line the Fed had drawn. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said in a speech hours before the report that core inflation of about 0.3% would make a half-point hike in December worth considering.
Traders took him at his word. On Polymarket, the odds of a hike of 0.5 percentage point or more in December went from 4.4% just before the report to 12.8% two hours later. They sit at 9.4% now, while a standard quarter-point hike is priced at 85.5%.
Higher rates hurt crypto in a simple way. They make cash and bonds pay more, so money flows out of riskier bets. On Tuesday, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose from 4.86% to 4.98%.
Two more pressures added to it:
- Nvidia:the chipmakers stock fell 5.5% to $168.89 on Tuesday, its lowest close since March 30. A Republican senator called on CEO Jensen Huang to resign over his affair. Crypto often follows the biggest AI stock lower.
- ETF outflows:U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lost a net $969 million over the past five trading days. CryptoQuant author Axel Adler Jr. tracked the outflows in a report summarized by Lookonchain.
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Why Is Crypto Crashing？ ZEC Is Falling Hardest Because It Rose the Most
ZEC had the most to give back. We compared the price changes of 20 large coins on Binance over the past week and since January 1.
- ZEC:down 24.8% in seven days, the worst of the group, but still up 89% in 2026.
- The rest:only two others, NEAR and Tron (TRX), are higher this year. Bitcoin is down 6.1% in a week and 15.9% since January 1.
When markets get nervous, traders tend to sell what has made them the most money. ZEC has fallen 41% from its September 26 closing high of $1,653.
Borrowed money made the drop faster. On Hyperliquid, ZEC fell from $1,199.20 to $965.79 in less than a day. Lookonchain counted 32 traders holding more than $1 million each in leveraged bets on a rising ZEC price. Of those, 27 are now losing money, with about $23.7 million in paper losses between them.
Sharp drops have not always lasted. Since January 2025, ZEC has fallen 12% or more in a single day 14 times on Binance. Seven days later, it was higher eight times, with a median gain of 6.5%.
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ZEC Price Analysis: Can $933 Hold Above the Whales Liquidation Zone？
ZEC trades at about $966. It touched $961.07 on Wednesday, its lowest price since September 4.
On the daily chart, where each candle covers one day, ZEC has fallen below its 50-day exponential moving average (EMA), an average that gives recent prices more weight, at $1,200.68. It is still above its 200-day EMA at $872.23.
- Resistance:$1,050, Wednesdays high, then $1,191.76, a recent swing high close to the 50-day EMA.
- Support:$933.12, the September 4 low, then about $895. Lookonchain tracks two of the largest ZEC bulls on Hyperliquid, and they would be forced out of their positions near $894 and $895. Below that, the 200-day EMA sits at $872.23.
ZECUSDT 1D chart. Source: TradingView.
| Scenario | Trigger | Level to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Recovery | A daily close above $1,050 | $1,191.76, near the 50-day EMA |
| Holding pattern | ZEC stays between $933 and $1,050 | A base above the September 4 low |
| Further drop | A daily close below $933 | $895, where large liquidations sit, then the 200-day EMA at $872 |
For Bitcoin, the line to watch is Tuesdays low of $72,727. Below that, $68,902, the August 20 low, is the next support.
So, why is crypto crashing？ A hot inflation report raised the odds of a bigger Fed hike, and ZECs leveraged bulls are paying the most for it. A daily close back above $1,050 would be the first sign the selling is easing.
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