Polyhedra Network has released a report after its token, ZKJ, dropped more than 80% on June 15, falling from around $2 to just $0.26 in a few hours and wiping out nearly $500 million in value.
According to a June 16 report shared on X, Polyhedra (ZKJ) says the crash began when several wallets pulled large amounts of liquidity from the ZKJ/KOGE pool on PancakeSwap (CAKE) and quickly sold off millions of tokens. One address withdrew over $4.3 million in liquidity and dumped around 1.57 million ZKJ.
At least five other wallets followed similar patterns, all within minutes. These actions severely weakened market depth and triggered sharp price drops in an already fragile liquidity structure. Because the KOGE/USDT pool had little liquidity, the selling pressure spilled into the more liquid ZKJ/USDT pool, deepening the crash.
During the same period, crypto trading firm Wintermute sent over 3.39 million ZKJ to centralized exchanges like Bybit. Between 12:45 and 14:14 UTC, the price dropped from $1.92 to $0.29. At the start of this window, Wintermute held over 3.4 million ZKJ. By the end, their wallet had just 22,688.
On Bybit, leveraged long positions also began to unwind. Over $94 million in long positions were closed in just two hours, with multiple trades over $1 million liquidated around 12:57 UTC. These forced sales made the price fall faster.
Adding to the pressure, recent changes to Binance’s Alpha Points program increased the fragility of the liquidity pool. Before the crash, traders were using the ZKJ/KOGE pair to farm Binance Alpha points. However, Binance decreased rewards for these trades earlier in June, which caused the pool to become less stable.
Polyhedra said it added $30 million in liquidity during the crash to help support the price. But most of this was converted into ZKJ as the price fell. The crash also came just days before 15.53 million ZKJ tokens are set to unlock on June 19. This added to fears about more selling. The top 10 wallets hold nearly 69% of the supply, raising speculation about more coordinated exits.
ZKJ has recovered slightly and is trading at $0.42, up 23% in the past 24 hours. Polyhedra’s team is conducting further investigations and has pledged token buybacks. Still, analysts warn that the bounce may be short-lived, with risks of further volatility as the token unlock approaches.
