On the 25th of July, Stacks [STX] experienced strong bearish pressure. After a long period of consolidation, bears finally took over the market, with STX losing the $0.16 support level.
As a result, the altcoin crashed to $0.13. STX has not dropped to such levels since mid-2020, marking a 6-year low. As of this writing, Stacks was trading around $0.138, after dropping by 6.2% on the daily charts.
Why is Stacks declining, though?
STX dropped to a six-year low driven by market concerns over the token’s tag on Binance. The Stacks Endowment acknowledged the concern and said it was in contact with Binance to resolve the issue.
Importantly, the team posited that the change in tag on Binance was likely due to the upcoming PoX-5 hardfork. For that reason, the Stacks team informed other major CEX partners in time, who have since moved forward in support.
According to Reubs, the tag will be removed once consensus-level changes on Binance are completed. Although the team assured the community, the market did not receive the assurance positively, and sentiment flipped.
What about the PoX-5 hardfork?
The Stacks PoX-5 hardfork is scheduled for the 29th of July. This follows a successful vote and overwhelming community support of SP 044 and SP 045.
The highly anticipated upgrade brings about trustless, self-custodial Bitcoin staking. Thus, the upgrade will allow users to earn BTC-dominated yield while still keeping their holdings under their own key.
Three days ago, the public PoX-5 testnet went live for builders to test their protocols ahead of the mainnet.
On-chain usage remains extremely weak
Despite the rollout of the public testnet and market anticipation, Stacks’ on-chain activity has failed to keep up. In fact, the network’s on-chain activity has continued to decline.
According to Token Terminal data, daily active users plunged to 1.1k. The network recorded such a low user count in January 2026.
The declining usage shows that the upcoming upgrade has not incentivized users to stay or attracted new users. Reduced network activity usually translates to lower demand for the native token and could lead to extended weakness for STX.
Can STX hold the pressure?
The recent market concerns prompted traders to reduce exposure. As a result, the market structure weakened, thus further strengthening the downward momentum.
In fact, STX’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) formed a bearish crossover and plummeted into oversold territory.
At 23, RSI indicated sellers had fully retaken control. Furthermore, the Spot Buy Sell Volume metric confirms this bearish flip.
The sell volume rose to 4.98 million while the buy volume dropped to 4.24 million. Previously, buyers had shown relative strength, pushing buy volume to 20.4 million.
With sellers dominating the market, it warns of potentially extended weakness. Therefore, if sellers continue to dominate while network demand is weak, Stacks could drop below $0.13, with $0.1 as a critical support level.
However, if the concerns over the Binance tag are addressed, easing pressure, the altcoin could seek to reclaim $0.16.
Final Summary
- STX plunged to a 6-year low of $0.13 amid market concerns over the Binance tag.
- Stacks’ market structure remains bearish, with weak on-chain activity and seller dominance.
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