The Zcash (ZEC) price has rallied above the psychological $500 level, providing a bullish outlook for the privacy-focused token. This comes amid a notable surge in whale accumulation and derivatives activity among crypto traders. Why Zcash (ZEC) Price Rallied Above $500 Despite Crypto Market Decline CoinMarketCap data show that the Zcash (ZEC) price has rallied above $500 again, up over 20% in the last week. This comes despite the crypto market downtrend, with Bitcoin trading in a tight range just below the psychological $90,000 level. The ZEC surge above $500 comes amid a significant increase in whale accumulation, which has contributed to this price surge. Related Reading: Zcash Explodes 700% Since September – What’s Driving The Rally Amid The Bear Market? Nansen data show a 47% increase in ZEC whale holdings, with the top 100 addresses now holding 66% of the token’s total supply. This has likely created a supply shock, sparking a rise in the Zcash (ZEC) price. Notably, there has been a 55.36% drop in the supply held by exchanges, further highlighting the accumulation trend, with investors likely moving their coins off-exchanges for long-term holding. On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain also highlighted the accumulation trend among these whales. In an X post, Lookchain revealed two newly created wallets that withdrew 26,241 ZEC ($13.5 million) from Binance. In another post, the on-chain analytics platform revealed that another whale withdrew 7,714 ZEC ($4.12 million) from Kraken. Lookonchain had also drawn attention to a whale that withdrew 30,000 ZEC ($13.25 million) from Binance last week. Activity in the derivatives market has also contributed to the Zcash (ZEC) price rally above $500. CoinGlass data show an increase in the altcoin’s open interest, indicating that traders are increasing their positions. Most of these traders are currently long with the long/short ratio above 1. This recovery marks a positive for the privacy token, which had dropped to as low as $310 earlier this month. ZEC is notably the best-performing crypto among the top tokens with a year-to-date (YTD) gain of around 800%. ‘Next Stop Is $1,000’ BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes declared in an X post that the next stop for the Zcash (ZEC) price is $1,000 following its recovery above $500. This represents a potential 100% gain from its current price level. The BitMEX co-founder has been bullish on the privacy token for some time now, predicting it could eventually reach $10,000. Related Reading: The Bitcoin Bull And Bear Cases That Crypto Traders Should Know About Meanwhile, Zcash’s co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson suggested that the Zcash (ZEC) price will continue to rally because of its good product, scarcity, and regulatory atmosphere. He noted that privacy is now widely recognized as necessary in crypto. As such, the privacy narrative is expected to keep fueling this price surge. At the time of writing, the Zcash (ZEC) price is trading at around $536, up over 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
As the whole crypto market bled, Zcash (ZEC) started December with a massive one-day pullback, leading the losses among top cryptocurrencies. While some market observers suggest that the altcoin is positioned for a major move, others have warned that the price risks another major correction in the coming weeks. Related Reading: Is Strategy Buying Bitcoin Again? Saylor’s ‘Green Dots’ Suggest Yes Zcash Loses Key Support Levels Amid Crash Following the late Sunday market correction, Zcash has lost crucial levels and fallen to one-month lows. Over the past three months, the cryptocurrency has seen a parabolic rally, surging over 1,775% to its all-time high (ATH) of $750 in early November. Since its ATH rally, the altcoin has been trading within the $440-$720 levels, bouncing between the range’s upper and lower boundaries amid the recent market volatility. However, the end-of-November pullback saw ZEC’s price unsuccessfully retest its key support area, closing the day below this area for the first time in nearly a month. After losing this zone, Zcash continued to drop below other key support levels, breaking down the $400 barrier and hitting a local low of $328 on Monday morning before bouncing to the $340 area. Amid this performance, some market observers warned that the altcoin could be in trouble and further bleeding may occur in the coming weeks. Sjuul from AltCryptoGems highlighted that ZEC registers the biggest price drops in the weekly and daily timeframes, with declines of 40.2% and 24%, respectively. The analyst previously pointed out that the cryptocurrency lost its uptrend after falling below the EMA200, recording “a perfect bearish retest followed by a strong rejection” last week. As a result, Sjuul suggested that if Zcash did not reclaim the key moving average, the cryptocurrency would be positioned for a breakdown to lower support levels. Similarly, Altcoin Sherpa considers that ZEC could drop another 30%-40% to the $200 area after losing the crucial $440 support. Nonetheless, he added that the price will likely see short-term bounces during its retracement. ZEC’s Correction: Nothing To Worry About? Mert Mumtaz, Helius co-founder and CEO, affirmed that a correction after a 700% rally “is normal,” adding that the privacy token “looks great” on higher timeframes. Notably, the cryptocurrency still shows 700% and 485% increases on the three-month and one-year timeframes. The CEO also highlighted Zcash’s strengths: “privacy is not a narrative, private money is the entire purpose of crypto,” suggesting that the altcoin is positioned to challenge other leading cryptocurrencies like XRP in the future. Meanwhile, another pseudonym market watcher considers that Zcash is preparing for a big move despite the correction. According to X analyst Make Sense, the cryptocurrency is at a make-or-break level after falling to the $320 mark, its first major support area below the November range. If ZEC holds the current range, the price could reclaim its recently lost range and bounce to its $500-$600 mid-range. On the contrary, if it loses its current levels, the cryptocurrency could retest the $280 and even $200 area, he affirmed, before a trend reversal. Related Reading: Will Bitcoin (BTC) End 2025 In Green? November Close May Hold The Key “This is where market makers decide the next trend: bounce early → mid-range rally or deep sweep → full trend reversal. Either way, volatility is about to explode,” he explained. As of this writing, Zcash is trading at $338, a 20% decline in the monthly timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Delphi Digital researcher Simon Shockey is arguing that the real story in Zcash is no longer just its price – despite ZEC having one of the most eye-popping rallies of this cycle in recent months. “The most interesting thing about ZEC today is not the price,” he wrote on X. “It’s the fact that a GBTC-style discount dislocation just appeared around ZCSH.” For Shockey, the Zcash trust setup only makes sense when viewed through the lens of what happened with Grayscale’s Bitcoin product. He reminds readers that “funds were built, and later blown up, on two different GBTC trades.” The first was the premium arbitrage, where Grayscale allowed accredited investors to subscribe at NAV with a six-month lock while GBTC traded at a “~30–40%” premium in public markets. Will Zcash Follow The GBTC Playbook? The playbook, he writes, became almost mechanical: “subscribe at NAV, lock for six months, hedge BTC exposure with CME shorts, sell GBTC at a premium, pocket the spread and lever it.” It was so widely adopted that “every TradFi family office, hedge fund tourist, and crypto-native desk was running it. It became the trade. Until, well, it didn’t…” Related Reading: Why is Zcash Surging? Analysts Break Down the ZEC Rally and What Comes Next In February 2021, after years of trading rich to NAV, GBTC flipped to a discount. Anyone mid-lockup was now long an over-priced wrapper, paying to maintain a hedge and watching the discount widen to “-30%, -40%, even -45%.” Shockey calls that dislocation “career/cycle-ending almost overnight,” and notes that it helped detonate players like 3AC, BlockFi, Genesis and DCG. But he stresses that GBTC’s story had a second act: once the discount was entrenched, “a different trade emerged: buy GBTC at a discount, wait for regulatory clarity or ETF approval, redeem at NAV, capture the collapse in the discount.” Value-oriented funds “were early and underwater for a while. But they were ultimately right. The discount evaporated as ETF approval became inevitable.” Shockey’s contention is that a structurally similar phase may now be opening around Grayscale’s Zcash trust. “This morning Grayscale filed to convert ZCSH, their Zcash trust, into an ETP,” he writes. “That filing immediately creates the early outline of a GBTC-style discount trade.” He highlights that ZCSH recently traded around 33.50 dollars per share, even though “yesterday’s trust data, with a lower ZEC price, showed NAV around forty-one dollars per share.” By his math that is “still close to a 20 percent discount. Every ZCSH share is priced materially below the ZEC it represents.” With an implied 0.0817 ZEC per share, “you are effectively getting ZEC exposure at ~$410 per ZEC when spot is well above that.” Related Reading: Why Is Zcash Thriving? Paid Promotion Or Real Momentum? The key structural shift is the proposed move from a closed trust to an exchange-traded product with redemptions. “The current trust structure does not allow redemptions,” Shockey notes. “The proposed ETP would, with one-to-one withdrawals of the actual ZEC held.” If regulators sign off, “the discount should tighten and ZCSH should move toward NAV. This is exactly what happened with GBTC as ETF approval became more realistic.” He is careful to add: “Not guaranteed. Not the same trade. But structurally very similar.” On the money-making angle, Shockey is explicit. “The discount closing is the cleanest angle. Buying ZCSH at a 20 percent discount and selling after convergence is the purest version of the trade.” Beyond that, “there is optionality if ZEC rerates during the approval window. If the privacy-oriented store-of-value narrative strengthens, ZEC can rise while the discount closes. That creates a second leg of upside that GBTC did not offer until very late.” He argues that a ZEC ETP “could unlock new demand,” since “most funds/investors cannot hold ZEC directly due to custody and mandate issues. An ETP solves that. New pools of capital often tighten discounts by themselves.” Narrative and political tailwinds, in his view, are real. “Bitcoin’s lack of privacy is back in focus. The quantum-risk discussion is getting louder.” He points to mainstream airtime, including comments from VanEck’s CEO about Bitcoin’s shortcomings and ZEC as a potential hedge, as a signal that the story has escaped pure crypto-Twitter. His closing summary captures the asymmetric, time-bounded nature of the bet: “If markets keep leaning toward the idea that ZEC is absorbing the role Bitcoin stepped away from, then ZCSH becomes the cleanest vehicle to express that view. You get ZEC exposure in public markets, which could become a major driver of rerating as flows pick up, plus a built-in twenty percent discount that only exists until the ETP is approved. ZODL?” At press time, Zcash traded at $509.84. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
The cryptocurrency market continues to bleed, with the total market cap now hovering around $2.89 trillion. Zcash (ZEC), one of the privacy tokens daring to defy the fearful market sentiment, has experienced a steady, choppy price action as market forces struggle to establish control. Interestingly, a prominent market analyst with the X username PlanD has discovered significant bearish potential on the horizon. Related Reading: Why is Zcash Surging? Analysts Break Down the ZEC Rally and What Comes Next Zcash To Fall To $281 – Is The Party Over? Despite its performance amid the general crypto market correction, Zcash struggles to break past a formidable barrier in the $750 price zone. In the last week, the privacy coin experienced this rejection in the two instances it climbed above the $700 price mark. According to PlanD, ZEC’s multiple rejections are also threatening the viability of an ascending channel that began in October. Notably, Zcash has broken below the lower boundary of this channel at $672, in successive moments, signaling increasing bearish pressure and weakening upward structure. If the market bears assume a dominant hand of the privacy coin, PlanD is projecting a price crash to around $281, indicating a potential 50% price loss from the present market prices. PlanD’s prediction is similar to that by fellow analyst Ali Martinez, who has since tipped ZEC could correct to around $325, following its struggles at the $750 price zone. However, while technical indicators point to an impending price collapse, strong fundamental developments provide bullishness for a continuous price uptrend. These include institutional endorsements as Cypherpunk Technologies, backed by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, which has recently launched a $50 million Zcash treasury strategy. Furthermore, the upcoming Zcash halving event, slated for November 28, adds another layer of bullish undertone as an increase in token scarcity is expected to drive demand pressure and subsequently boost prices. Related Reading: Dogecoin (DOGE) Falls Again as Trader Sentiment Turns Increasingly Bearish ZEC Price Overview At the time of writing, Zcash trades at $490.52, reflecting a drastic 24.11% decline in the past 24 hours as total crypto liquidation crossed $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, daily trading volume is down by 6.1% and valued at $2.24 billion. Nevertheless, ZEC’s monthly performance stands at a staggering 99.41% representing the coin’s defying bullish performance during a time when the total crypto market cap has reduced by 28%. In the last year alone, the privacy coin has surged by 928%, highlighting a remarkable and sustained bullish trajectory. With a market cap of $7.8 billion, ZEC now ranks as the 13th largest cryptocurrency in the world. Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from Tradingview
After years in the wilderness, Zcash (ZEC) has staged a roughly 740% price “pump” this year, with analysts linking the move to surging demand for on-chain privacy and a cluster of high-profile endorsements. The speed and timing of the rally have ignited a heated debate on X: is Zcash’s resurgence driven by coordinated paid promotion, or by genuine improvements in its technology and monetary design? The flashpoint came from infrastructure founder Mert Mumtaz (@0xMert_), who mocked the idea that a single “mega-whale” is paying off every visible supporter. “There’s a person in crypto so rich that they are simultaneously paying off Cobie, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, me, Tim Ferris, [Arthur] Hayes, Gainzy, path, Ansem, the Winklevoss Twins, Toly [Yakovenko] and more. (all of whom require just one final OTC KOL deal to finally make it). Either that or I’m retarded.” there’s a person in crypto so rich that they are simultaneously paying off cobie, naval, balaji, me, tim ferris, hayes, gainzy, path, ansem, the winklevoss twins, toly and more (all of whom require just one final OTC KOL deal to finally make it) either that or I’m retarded — mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) November 16, 2025 In a follow-up, he argued the real story is investor psychology, writing that “people would rather believe the above than admit that they sidelined themselves due to poor thinking and emotion.” Why Is Zcash Surging Now? Mert then laid out why, in his view, Zcash is rallying now: a more favorable political window for privacy coins in the US, issuance reduction, NEAR Intents that turn ZEC into a “shielded swiss vault” for one-click cross-chain payments, the default-shielding Zashi wallet with “100x better UX,” the 100x-scaling ambitions of Project Tachyon. Related Reading: Winklevoss Twins Back Zcash (ZEC) Treasury Company With $58M Investment On the long list of arguments he added the disillusionment with an increasingly institutional Bitcoin, Europe’s tightening surveillance regime, maturing zero-knowledge tech, fatigue with supply-controlled coins that were “dumped” on retail, and the broader “debasement trade” pushing investors toward alternative stores of value. He closed: “you combine all of the above with a little spark and the fire spreads fast. There is no conspiracy, just think. This is not a trade.” Skeptics see the same facts very differently. One user complained that Jordan Fish [@Cobie), a prominent UK-based crypto investor and trader, had become a “paid zcash shill,” and asked whether “all the big KOLs just randomly decided to just start shilling Zcash.” Cobie replied that his interest was not new at all: “Just started? I have been doing this almost 10 years (painfully),” resurfacing a 2017 tweet about buying ZEC if the price ever hit $0.3. When his critic apologized, Cobie turned to fundamentals: “Zcash has a lot of recent developments actually IMO. (1) One of the coolest things I have seen: Project Tachyon. (2) They fixed the brutal inflation that killed us. (3) Zcash + NEAR intents for permissionless cross-chain swaps seems to actually be working.” Zcash has a lot of recent developments actually IMO. (1) One of the coolest things I have seen: https://t.co/3wXNpugkna (2) They fixed the brutal inflation that killed us (3) Zcash + NEAR intents for permissionless cross-chain swaps seems to actually be working:… pic.twitter.com/JgVFh9Xg3T — Cobie (@cobie) November 16, 2025 Those developments are verifiable. Zcash’s engineering roadmap has advanced from experimental cryptography to production-grade systems. Project Tachyon, outlined by Zcash researcher Sean Bowe, proposes “oblivious synchronization,” a way for wallets to sync shielded notes without leaking metadata, drastically lowering latency and making large-scale shielded usage practical. Related Reading: Arthur Hayes Outlines Why Zcash Could Surge To $10,000–$20,000 Fast On the user side, the Zashi wallet has become the flagship interface, abstracting away complex shielding flows and steering users into private, shielded transactions by default. Research from Galaxy and other analysts notes that shielded supply has climbed from low single-digit percentages a few years ago to roughly a quarter of all circulating ZEC, with estimates around 30% of supply now parked in the shielded pool. Influencer activity undeniably amplifies this. Naval Ravikant’s October post, “Bitcoin is insurance against fiat. ZCash is insurance against Bitcoin,” was widely cited as an immediate catalyst for a sharp doubling in ZEC’s price and cemented the “privacy insurance” meme. The Zcash debate ultimately sits at the intersection of reflexive markets and real progress. Genuine upgrades in issuance, UX and scalability, plus a harsher global climate for financial privacy, have created a strong fundamental backdrop. Vocal advocates with large audiences have compressed years of re-rating into weeks, leaving sidelined traders searching for explanations. Whether one calls that paid promotion, organic momentum or a feedback loop of both, the current cycle shows how quickly a once-written-off privacy coin can become crypto’s latest battleground. At press time, ZEC traded at $682. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Following the recent comeback of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, Cypherpunk Technologies has launched a $50 million Zcash (ZEC) treasury strategy backed by Winklevoss Capital. Related Reading: SUI Eyes Key Retest As Price Breaks Out Of Downtrend – Rally To $3 Ahead? Cypherpunk Technologies Launches Zcash DAT On Wednesday, Leap Therapeutics announced the official launch of its Zcash Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy and rebrand to Cypherpunk Technologies. The biotech company previously revealed that it had closed a $58.88 million private placement in October, led by Winklevoss Capital, as part of its plan to expand to the digital assets sector. The company currently holds 1.25% of the current ZEC supply after acquiring 203,775 ZEC at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $50 million, or $245.37 per token. Cypherpunk Technologies will reportedly continue to accumulate Zcash to own at least 5% of the total ZEC supply. The Company believes that privacy-protecting assets and related technologies will be critical in an increasingly digital world. The Company intends to acquire and hold ZEC, the native coin of Zcash, as its primary digital asset and to be an active participant in the Zcash community. Douglas E. Onsi, President and CEO of Cypherpunk Technologies, asserted that “This past month has been transformative for the Company, marked by closing a $58.88 million private placement led by Winklevoss Capital and successfully deploying $50 million to build a digital asset treasury designed to create long-term shareholder value focused on active participation in the development of Zcash and acquiring ZEC.” Per the announcement, the company will begin trading on Nasdaq under the new CYPH ticker on Thursday, November 13. Meanwhile, its ongoing cancer research and development operations will continue under a subsidiary that will take the Leap Therapeutics name. Winklevoss Twins Back ‘Encrypted Bitcoin’ In an X post, Gemini’s co-founder, Tyler Winklevoss, explained the reasons behind Winklevoss Capital’s investment in Cypherpunk Technologies, emphasizing the importance of supporting privacy and self-sovereignty in the online era. “Privacy is the precondition for many of our freedoms. It’s the point at which government and corporate reach end and our individual freedoms and self-sovereignty begin. As our lives have moved online, privacy’s become a rare, vanishing commodity,” the post reads. Winklevoss highlighted Zcash’s “highly symbiotic relationship” with Bitcoin since its launch nine years ago, affirming that, “If bitcoin is digital gold, Zcash is encrypted bitcoin, or digital cash.” One is your store of value, the other is how you privately move your value. We’ve been tracking this symbiosis for years and believe that now — as we enter the age of AI — is the right time to begin accumulating ZEC. Gemini’s co-founder also argued that Zcash could capture “a meaningful percentage” of BTC’s market capitalization, which he has predicted will surge to $1 million per BTC over the next 5-10years. Therefore, he believes that “Zcash will appreciate significantly from here as well.” Related Reading: Ethereum (ETH) Reclaims $3,500 Amid Market Rebound, Analysts Forecast December Take-Off It’s worth noting that Zcash has recorded a parabolic rally since September, surging 1,775% to its all-time high (ATH) of $750 last Friday. Since then, the cryptocurrency has followed the market’s correction, dropping over 40% to the $420 area before recovering. As of this writing, Zcash is trading at $507, a 15% increase in the daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Arthur Hayes thinks Zcash can move an order of magnitude faster than most investors expect—and he spelled out why in a Coin Bureau interview released on November 3. The former BitMEX CEO ties the new Zcash bull case to a three-part story that mixes technical maturation, visible shifts in on-chain behavior, and a looming supply inflection. “I think that 10% to 20% of the value of Bitcoin quite quickly is something that Zcash could achieve,” he said—an estimate that, at current Bitcoin prices, translates to roughly $10,000–$20,000 per ZEC. Why Zcash Could Skyrocket To $10,000-$20,000 For Hayes, the technology is no longer the 2016 experiment that divided the market over ceremony theater and cryptographic trust. He recounted being “deep into Zcash in 2016” when BitMEX listed a pre-genesis futures market and spot prices briefly printed around “$3,000 a coin on Poloniex” before supply filled in. What’s changed, he argues, is the removal—by protocol upgrades—of the original single biggest credibility drag. “One of the big issues with Zcash back then was this trusted setup issue… but essentially, I think it was the Halo 2 upgrade recently removed or maybe a few years ago removed that trusted setup issue.” That, in his telling, reframes Zcash from a clever but encumbered R&D project into a privacy asset whose cryptography now clears the institutional sniff test. Related Reading: Zcash Rally Gains Steam, Can ZEC’s 4.5M Shielded Supply Push It Back Into the Top 20? He couples that with direct user-level experience. Hayes says he installed Zashi, Zcash’s flagship wallet, and used Near Intents flows to shield and swap, which he likened to an industrial-strength mixer. “When you do that, it’s essentially like Tornado Cash on steroids,” he said, emphasizing that the resulting output asset “appears, but it’s not linked to any other transaction.” Costs remain a friction—“It’s definitely not cheap yet”—but he points to trend data he has reviewed showing a secular rise in actual privacy usage: “the amount of shielded transactions is approaching I think 30%, up from like a few percentage points when I cared about Zcash a long time ago.” In other words, the privacy feature set is not just theoretically stronger; it is being used. The demand narrative rests on a simple claim: in the age of on-chain forensics and AI-enabled pattern recognition, true cash-like privacy is a product with differentiated utility. Hayes draws a sharp line between pseudonymity and privacy. “I believe in privacy coins… I think Bitcoin being synonymous is actually a good thing because I want to be able to track Bitcoin, but I also want to have internet cash where there is no traceability of that.” He contrasts Zcash with Monero’s recent headlines, citing reports that “the Japanese authorities were able to deanonymize Monero by… linking together different disparate parts of some information.” Scarcity is the third pillar. Hayes flags the Zcash halving “coming up in a few weeks, November,” framing it as the timing catalyst that could supercharge reflexivity if investor attention and liquidity arrive in tandem. The supply cut is not the entire story for him—he dismisses halving dogma in Bitcoin—but he does view a synchronous demand narrative plus a mechanical issuance drop as unusually potent for a small-float asset when a privacy bid is already rising on-chain. Related Reading: $10K Is Coming: Arthur Hayes’ Zcash ‘Vibe Check’ Sparks 30% Moonshot Liquidity and access are precisely why he sees the setup as asymmetric. Zcash is not broadly quotable, which is a risk and an opportunity. “I hit up… eight or nine OTC brokers. Only two brokers would quote me Zcash,” he said, describing how hard it was to acquire size through traditional venues. He expects that, if the price begins to trend, the path will run through permissionless rails rather than regulated exchanges. “If the price rises high enough… I can buy it on one of these decentralized exchanges and that’ll be how you really get access… just like how Bitcoin was back [then].” Hayes also addresses the change in his own posture, including what catalyzed it. He credits a dinner during Token2049 with Naval Ravikant, who “started shilling me on Zcash,” prompting him to push past his 2016-era objections and re-underwrite the protocol. “I bought a few million bucks on the spot at that point,” he said, adding that he kept buying “even though I bought it after the 80% pump when Naval sent out that tweet.” Hayes believes the upside can compress into weeks rather than years. In his words: “I’ve bought a lot of it… I’m still buying it. I think that this is probably going to be one of my better trades of the cycle.” At press time, ZEC traded at $464. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com