ZRC, the native token of Ethereum layer-2 network Zircuit, rallied over 19% after its listing on a prominent centralized exchange.

Zircuit (ZRC) soared to $0.079 on Jan. 13, a 24.8 rally from its weekly low of $0.063, while bringing its market cap to over $160 million at press time. The altcoin’s price rally came as its daily trading volume rose 69% from $32 million early Monday morning to over $56.8 million.

ZRC’s sharp rally on Monday followed an announcement by Bithumb, a major South Korea-based crypto exchange, that it would list the altcoin on its platform with a KRW trading pair on Jan. 13.

Listings on popular exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb have often led to sharp rallies in the associated crypto assets. However, it’s important to note that rallies ahead of exchange listings often experience a reversal, as investors typically sell their holdings in a “sell the news” scenario.

One such instance can be seen in Safe Wallet’s SAFE token, which rallied 20% ahead of its listing on Bithumb on Jan. 10, as reported earlier by crypto.news. However, the altcoin has since reversed most of its gains and is now down 15.8% from its intraday high reached on the day of the announcement.

The listing also positioned ZRC as a top trending token on CoinGecko.

ZRC’s recent rally has also gained traction due to a surge in demand among derivatives traders. Data from CoinGlass shows that open interest for ZRC in the futures market surged by 115% over the past day, reaching $10.98 million—substantially higher than the $981k recorded in January.

A lot of investors’ interest in ZRC has also been driven by its impressive growth in the DeFi sector. According to DeFiLlama, Zircuit’s total value locked has surged to $725 million at the time of writing, far exceeding the $256 million recorded at the end of 2024. Most of its TVL is currently held in its staking protocol. 

However, there remains one potential concern for ZRC, as a larger proportion of traders appear to be moving their holdings to exchanges, potentially creating selling pressure and risking a reversal of recent gains. According to CoinGlass data, approximately $3.35 million worth of ZRC was sent to centralized exchanges on Jan. 13, compared to $3.28 million withdrawn.

Indeed, ZRC has already given up most of its recent gains, falling 12.4% from its intraday high of $0.6994 when writing.

Will ZRC continue its rally?

Technical indicators, however, suggest that ZRC might soon resume its rally. On the daily chart, the altcoin’s price has risen above the middle Bollinger Band at $0.71, indicating a potential shift back to a bullish trend. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator supports this outlook, with the MACD line pointing upward and appearing poised to cross above the signal line, a sign of bullish reversal in technical analysis.

As such, ZRC could potentially retest the $0.8 psychological resistance level, which the altcoin struggled to breach in late December. However, if bearish sentiment prevails, it could push its price down to the $0.064 support level.

At press time, the altcoin remains 24.4% below its all-time high of $0.097, recorded in November of last year.