It looks kind of fried, do you have this out in direct sun?

This is not a plant for that, a tropical forest cactus, lives up in the canopy in partial shade & dappled light. Yours looks totally exposed & unprotected = bleached out by the sun.

Pot seems too wide to me, did the roots need all that space?

Another possibility is that it got a 'frostbite' if it was in cool temps and wet soil...Succulent could rot easily if soil stays wet and I is also cold. Are those few lowest segments dry or soft? How did the rots look?

Karen that could totally be it! You’ve probably solved it! Not only did it potentially get fried under some stupid heat lamps I had to use very temporarily on my greenhouse until I got my thermostat/heater situated, it also doesn’t have shade in there. It didn’t really before and I never had this issue, but with that being said I feel like it gets more sun than ever now in the green house. I’ll try the bottom shelf, or maybe ever some shaders. I do remember reading they are forest plants—however I guess where in the past I never had any issues treating them the same with my others and in fact getting beautiful blooms, reviving from dead, and a huge amount of new pads, I never really treated him much different but the greenhouse experience I am definitely still learning :)

Rina I kept it totally dry until everything was situated with my heating system. I had read that it’s really harmful to water while cold. The roots actually looked really healthy and the reason I went with a wider pot is I had it in a taller skinny one and it was significantly growing out the bottom. Buds are forming. I’m shocked as bad shape it’s in. It’s not mushy at all though. I think it’s truly fried and I need to either find a different spot in the greenhouse or a way to protect!

I was searching for a problem with my Easter Cactus and found this forum. Here's the thing, mine has a bit of a hard coating 1/3 of the way up the plant and has had that since I rescued it from a garage sale about 12 years ago. It blooms fine and the rest of the way up the stem is green. I wanted to identify what it might be and it there was a way to remove what appears to be a thin and sometimes hard coating ?? Any experts here that may know ? I's starting to bloom right now.

thanks, it's always bloomed, I guess it's much older than I thought but, never really got big.