#ZEC ZEC, which nearly went to zero, is charging toward the NYSE!

ZEC has hit a new high again.
A privacy coin launched in 2016, it uses zero-knowledge proofs to hide transaction amounts and participants. Its price recently surged to around $800, briefly reaching over $880, while its market cap climbed to approximately $13 billion, ranking around 11th globally. Its 24-hour trading volume has repeatedly exceeded $1 billion, at times approaching or even surpassing $2 billion, a very high proportion of its market cap. This is not low-liquidity price manipulation, but real money changing hands. Why can a coin that nearly went to zero surge so dramatically? Who is buying? Compared with major coins such as BNB and SOL, where exactly is it weaker and where is it stronger?

History is not a dark past, but a mark of survival
Zcash launched in October 2016. In its early days, its low supply and intense speculation drove its price extremely high, followed by a rapid decline. During the 2018 bear market and subsequent rounds of correction, its price fell very low. Around July 2024, its low was approximately $16. Many people were trapped at high prices or forcibly liquidated on leverage.
It did not die.
The team continued upgrading the protocol: Sapling improved efficiency, followed later by fixes such as Ironwood. In June 2026, a years-old vulnerability was discovered in the Orchard shielded pool that could potentially affect proof correctness. The price briefly fell from over $600 to around $300, wiping out billions of dollars in market value. After an emergency fix, the network recovered. From 2025 to 2026, it climbed from dozens of dollars, gaining over 1,000% in a year. These crashes and repairs proved that it could withstand security crises and market abandonment rather than simply disappear. Holders were liquidated at the lows, while new capital entered at the highs. This is the norm in crypto markets and part of its survival process.

The specific reasons behind this rally
First, demand for privacy has not disappeared. Regulation is becoming increasingly strict, but individuals and businesses still need transaction privacy.
Zcash's zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) can protect privacy while allowing validators to confirm that transactions are valid. It supports optional transparent or shielded addresses, making it more acceptable to some institutions than fully opaque coins. The proportion of coins in the shielded pool has risen, and the average number of shielded transactions per day has increased, showing that people are using it rather than merely speculating.
Second, institutions are entering the market. Grayscale is advancing the conversion of its Zcash trust into a spot ETF, ticker ZCSH, planned to trade on NYSE Arca. The trust already holds approximately 390k ZEC. This is the first attempt in the U.S. market to package a privacy coin as a standardized securities product. Meanwhile, Winklevoss-related Cypherpunk Technologies holds approximately 290k to 320k ZEC, representing about 1.7%-2% of the circulating supply, and has launched large-scale mining operations with the goal of building a larger position. The company's accumulation is publicly disclosed, with an average cost far below the current price. This is not retail hype, but capital capable of affecting supply and demand.
Third, technological upgrades and market sentiment are reinforcing each other.
After the Ironwood upgrade fixed security issues, NU7-related voting and issuance adjustments are moving forward. Futures open interest briefly approached $1.8 billion, with trading volume far exceeding that of spot markets; leveraged capital amplified the gains. The seven-day increase exceeded 50%, while the 30-day increase was also significant. The high trading-volume-to-market-cap ratio indicates genuine turnover.
These factors have combined: a revival of the privacy narrative + ETF expectations + institutional holdings + completed upgrades. The price quickly surged from around $500 to over $800.

Compared with major coins such as BNB and SOL
BNB is an exchange ecosystem coin, with a market cap typically around $90 billion and a ranking in the top five. It is supported by actual revenue from trading-fee burns, on-chain applications, Launchpad, and more. SOL is a high-performance public blockchain, with a market cap of approximately $56 billion and a top-ten ranking, driven by DeFi, NFTs, high throughput, and its developer ecosystem. Their circulating market caps are far larger than Zcash's $13 billion.
Zcash's price per coin has exceeded that of BNB and SOL, but its total market cap has not.
The reason is simple: their supply structures differ.
ZEC has a maximum supply of 21 million and a circulating supply of approximately 16.8 million; BNB and SOL have larger circulating supplies. Zcash's move into the top 11-12 shows that it is being repriced among similar assets. Why can it outperform for a period of time? Major coins are already very large, so their growth depends on ecosystem expansion. Privacy coins have smaller bases, so once the narrative and capital arrive at the same time, their elasticity is greater. Demand for BNB and SOL comes from usage, while demand for Zcash comes from not wanting to be completely tracked. They are not direct substitutes, but belong to different sectors. The privacy sector has long been suppressed by regulation, and many coins have been delisted by exchanges; few have survived. Zcash's rise in the rankings shows that the market is reassessing its scarcity.
Looking at the broader data: Over the past year, Zcash's gains have far exceeded those of most major coins; at peak periods, its trading volume accounted for a high proportion of its market cap, approaching or exceeding the relative activity of some larger coins. This is not an illusion caused by low liquidity, but capital rotating into the asset.

Why is this real money rather than pure price manipulation?
When low-liquidity coins are pumped, trading volume is small and order books are thin, making them easy to dump. Zcash's daily trading volume has frequently exceeded $1 billion recently, while futures open interest has doubled to around $1.8 billion. Institutional trusts and publicly listed companies' holdings can be publicly verified. If this were merely market-making through wash trades, it would be difficult to sustain such high genuine turnover or attract ETF filings and accumulation by listed companies. Of course, leverage has amplified volatility, making both rises and falls faster.

The risks must be made clear
The price has risen dozens of times from its low, with extreme volatility. It has suffered multiple sharp crashes in the past: security vulnerabilities, governance disputes, regulatory pressure, and broad bear markets can all cut its price in half or worse. Many people who added leverage at high prices were forcibly liquidated.
Privacy coins inherently face regulatory risks: restrictions in some countries, exchange delistings, and rising compliance costs. Whether the ETF will ultimately be approved and whether institutions will continue buying remain uncertain. New issues may still emerge after technological upgrades. Although its market cap has entered the top 11, it remains small relative to BNB, SOL, and others, so it will fall more sharply when liquidity is hit. There are no assets in the crypto market that only rise and never fall. Its historical high was far above $3,000 in its early days, and it remains much lower today. Any rally may be given back.

Summary of the logic
Zcash has gone from nearly reaching zero to where it is today because its technology continues to evolve, demand for privacy has not disappeared, and institutions have begun testing the waters. Trading volume, holdings, and upgrades are verifiable data, not slogans. Compared with major coins, it has a smaller market cap, greater elasticity, and a narrower sector. The rally has reasons behind it, and the risks are real. The answers to what most market participants want to know—“Why can it rise?” “Who is buying?” and “Could it go to zero again?”—all lie in supply and demand, the narrative, and execution. Supply and demand have been changed by institutions and hedging demand; the narrative has shifted from “will be eliminated” to “an optional privacy tool”; and execution is reflected in repeated fixes rather than giving up.

This is an objective review, not investment advice. $ZEC