Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

The @ZcashFoundation has released Zebra 7.0.0-rc.0, the first release candidate of its node software built to support the upcoming NU7 network upgrade for @Zcash. Testnet node operators are encouraged to upgrade before that date.

Faster Blocks, Less Spam The headline change under NU7 is a sharp reduction in $ZEC block times. That means confirmation times will be roughly three times faster than they are today, a meaningful improvement for a privacy-focused network that competes on usability.

The upgrade also introduces new limits on shielded transactions to protect wallets from spam. Alongside the block-time cut, NU7 will deprecate Version 4 transactions and integrate a Network Sustainability Mechanism.

To keep issuance in check despite the faster block schedule, The overall rate of new ZEC entering circulation stays effectively unchanged.

Timeline and What Comes Next

The November 5 date remains a target rather than a firm commitment.

Regular wallet users and ZEC holders are not expected to need to take any action.

Sources:
Zebra 7.0.0-rc.0 Release Notes, Zcash Foundation GitHub
Zcash Targets November Upgrade to Make Private Payments Up to Three Times Faster, CoinDesk
NU7 Timeline, Zcash Community Forum

Zcash holders have approved $8.39 million in retroactive grants for completed work, including $1.5 million tied to the researcher who uncovered the critical Orchard vulnerability during an AI-assisted security audit.

Summary

Zcash holders approved $8.39 million in retroactive grants, funding 17 of 37 proposals this quarter. Zcash holders approved $1.5 million for Taylor Hornby after his discovery of Orchard’s critical vulnerability. Coinholder participation reached 2.18 million ZEC, representing 10.4% of Zcash’s fixed 21 million coin supply. ZEC trades near $1,407 after September’s rally as short-term momentum cools below recent highs. One whale withdrew 2,000 ZEC from Binance, taking its main wallet near $66 million. OpenZcash shows that 17 of 37 proposals in the Q3 2026 Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants round were funded, representing 93.1% of the $9.01 million requested. The largest single vote involved roughly 2.18 million ZEC, equal to 10.4% of Zcash’s maximum 21 million supply.

Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox wrote on Oct. 1 that the grants rewarded people who worked on the network during this year’s security crisis. He described the vote as evidence for Zcash’s system of coinholder-directed funding and governance, though his assessment of the model’s strength represents his own view.

Zcash just gave away more than $8m in retroactive grants, including millions of dollars of retroactive grants to a lot of people who selflessly worked to protect all users during the AI bug crisis this year.

But that’s not even the best thing about what just happened… ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/yRtVUvkt5y

— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) October 1, 2026 Zcash holders approved $1.5M for the Orchard bug discovery Among the largest approvals were two $750,000 grants tied to Taylor Hornby’s discovery of the Orchard counterfeiting vulnerability. One covered the original bug bounty, while a second community nomination increased the total award to $1.5 million.

Shielded Labs disclosed in June that Hornby found the flaw on May 29 while reviewing Orchard with traditional security techniques and Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 model. The bug affected Orchard’s zero-knowledge proof circuit and could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC inside the shielded pool without leaving an obvious onchain trace.

Hornby immediately disclosed the issue to Zcash Open Development Lab engineers. Developers, miners, exchanges and infrastructure providers then coordinated an emergency response.

The Zcash Foundation said the network first temporarily disabled Orchard transactions before activating NU6.2 with a corrected circuit. Its analysis found no evidence of unauthorized value creation, and Zcash’s total supply remained intact under the network’s turnstile accounting.

The $1.5 million approval is retroactive compensation for the completed security work. Large grants still pass through the program’s administration process, which includes compliance checks for awards above $50,000 before keyholders coordinate payouts.

Security work took most of the largest grants The Q3 vote extended well beyond Hornby’s bounty. Several of the largest funded proposals covered security research, audits, protocol development and work completed during Zcash’s response to vulnerabilities earlier this year.

Coinholders approved $1.95 million for ZODL’s Q1 and Q2 core protocol development and $1.203 million for ValarGroup’s Ironwood work. A further $738,942 went toward formal verification of the Ironwood zk-SNARK circuit, while $599,000 covered external audit costs.

Other funded security work included $425,000 covering five critical Zebra consensus-divergence vulnerabilities, a $400,000 award connected with a temporary detectable unlimited-mint-and-sell exploit, and a $150,000 Zebra vulnerability bounty.

Ironwood itself followed the Orchard incident. The Zcash Foundation released Zebra 6.0.0 in July with support for the NU6.3 Ironwood upgrade, which introduced a new shielded pool using Orchard’s Action and Halo2 proof system while maintaining separate accounting data.

Coinholders did not approve every request. Twenty proposals were rejected or otherwise failed to receive funding, while the approved projects captured most of the dollars because the largest security and protocol-development proposals received strong support.

Coinholders directly decided where the money goes The grant system pays for work after it has already been completed. Funding comes from the Coinholder-Controlled Fund established through Zcash’s network funding structure.

Under the current rules, at least 420,000 ZEC must participate in a proposal for the vote to qualify. A simple majority then determines approval, excluding abstentions from the majority calculation.

Shielded Labs and the Zcash Foundation act as keyholders for the fund’s 2-of-3 multisignature arrangement. They process approved payments but retain limited veto powers defined by the program, including legal grounds. They cannot reverse a proposal rejected by coinholders.

Participation increased sharply this quarter. OpenZcash records the largest Q3 vote at approximately 2.18 million ZEC, compared with around 500,608 ZEC during Q1. Q2 voting was postponed after the Orchard vulnerability, pushing several proposals into the Q3 round.

Zooko said the round involved Valar, ZODL, Vizor, the Financial Privacy Foundation and coinholders voting privately with billions of dollars in ZEC. His claim that the process proves Zcash is “capture-resistant” is an interpretation of the governance outcome, not a measurable property established by the vote.

The next grant round is scheduled to accept proposals from Oct. 30 through Nov. 13, followed by a review period and voting from Dec. 17 through Dec. 29.

How is Zcash price doing after the grants vote? Zcash is trading near $1,407 at the time of research, with CoinGecko showing a 24-hour range between roughly $1,382 and $1,458. ZEC remains below the $1,600-$1,700 area reached during its September rally but far above the levels seen before the month’s breakout.

The daily chart supplied for this analysis places the 14-day RSI at 55.45, below its moving average near 64.49. Momentum has therefore cooled from the overbought readings reached during the rally, although RSI remains above the neutral 50 level.

Zcash (ZEC) price chart, source: TradingView MACD is weaker in the short term. The MACD line stands around 120.13 compared with a signal line near 153.14, leaving the histogram negative at roughly -33.01. The configuration points to fading bullish momentum while ZEC consolidates below its September highs.

The pullback follows a strong run that carried ZEC above $1,600 late last month. In recent analysis of Zcash’s leverage reset, open interest on one major derivatives venue fell quickly as price retreated, showing traders reducing exposure after the rally.

Onchain Lens reported that a whale withdrew another 2,000 ZEC, worth roughly $2.82 million at the time, from Binance through two wallets before consolidating the coins into a primary address. The tracker put that wallet’s ZEC holdings near $66.19 million.

Exchange withdrawals alone do not show whether a holder intends to keep or later sell the coins. The transaction nevertheless occurred while ZEC was consolidating below recent highs.

WHALE ACCUMULATES $66M WORTH OF ZEC

A whale withdrew 2K $ZEC (~$2.82M) from Binance across two wallets, then consolidated the funds into its main accumulation wallet.

The main wallet now holds ~$66.19M worth of $ZEC. pic.twitter.com/nQ8aUNTMOq

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) September 30, 2026 Trader that1618guy wrote that ZEC was testing its daily 21-day EMA for the first time since August after climbing from above $400 to around $1,700. The analyst identified the 55-day EMA, then near $1,100, as a deeper area to watch if the correction extends.

At current levels, $1,400 remains the nearest price area for buyers to defend, while a recovery toward $1,500-$1,600 would return ZEC toward the zone where sellers emerged during September. The current RSI and MACD readings show the rally has cooled, but neither indicator by itself confirms that Zcash’s larger uptrend has ended.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Grayscale’s spot Zcash ETF, launched on August 25, 2026, has quickly become a significant market player as trading volumes and investment inflows surged in the fund’s opening weeks. Total investment inflows into Grayscale’s Zcash ETF have reached approximately $306 million, while assets under management were estimated at $996 million on September 25, according to SoSoValue data. Notably, new investments represent less than one-third of the fund’s asset base, reflecting the complex factors influencing the fund’s overall value.

Fund Structure and Asset GrowthThe rapid growth of Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, operating under the ticker ZCSH, highlights expanding demand for regulated ZEC exposure. By early September, the fund’s assets had already surpassed $500 million, a significant milestone shortly after its introduction. Grayscale’s approach combines direct investment inflows with substantial pre-existing ZEC holdings, which were already under management before launching the ETF.

One key contributor to the ETF’s holdings is DCG International Investments, which added approximately $100 million in ZEC to the fund. These contributions, along with market-driven value appreciation, play an essential role in the ETF’s asset composition. Consequently, the nearly $1 billion value attributed to the ETF reflects not only investor inflows but also the impact of ZEC’s price movements and other strategic asset allocations.

DCG International Investments’ allocation of about $100 million worth of ZEC has strengthened the ETF’s overall position, demonstrating how factors beyond direct inflows can impact reported assets.

Recent Flows and Market DynamicsDespite robust early demand, recent data indicate a slowdown in net inflows. On September 23, 24, and 25, the Spot Zcash ETFs recorded no new net investments, following a strong initial week. Subsequently, the ETF saw its largest single-day outflow to date on September 28, amounting to $8.12 million.

In total, Zcash ETFs are estimated to hold roughly 3.75% of ZEC’s circulating supply, highlighting their growing share within the broader Zcash ecosystem. This evolution underlines the strengthening link between the ETF’s performance and market movements in ZEC’s price. The difference between total inflows and the asset base primarily reflects price appreciation rather than ongoing capital additions, as the ETF is physically backed by ZEC holdings.

In the context of physically settled ETFs like Grayscale’s, changes in ZEC’s market price directly affect the value of assets held by the fund, even in periods without significant new capital inflow. As a result, approximately $306 million in investments has helped lift total assets to $996 million—a figure amplified by favorable price movements in ZEC since the fund’s inception.

Broader ETF Expansion in ZcashThe trend toward regulated Zcash exposure extends beyond Grayscale. 21Shares recently introduced a physically backed Zcash exchange-traded product, making ZEC accessible to investors on the Euronext Paris and Amsterdam exchanges. Trading commenced in September, with the product carrying a 2.5% annual fee.

These developments point to a growing ecosystem of regulated financial products centered around Zcash. As funds like Grayscale’s approach the $1 billion milestone and new instruments enter European markets, the demand for diversified ZEC investment options appears to be rising.

In a market where sudden regulatory shifts or new altcoin listings can drive rapid changes, managing portfolios efficiently has become essential. Smart traders are now streamlining their operations with privacy-focused platforms such as CryptoAppsy, which offer consolidated access to charts, price signals, targeted news, and macroeconomic data—eliminating the need for multiple applications or accounts and enabling faster, more effective market responses.

Looking ahead, future inflows into the Zcash ETF will likely depend on renewed investor interest or continued appreciation in ZEC’s market value. Updated flow data in the coming weeks are expected to offer further clarity on sustained demand after the fund’s swift initial expansion.

A year ago, Zcash was a rounding error next to Bitcoin. Its market cap sat at roughly 0.1% of Bitcoin’s, the kind of ratio that makes a coin easy to ignore. Fast forward to September 2026, and that number has jumped to 1.5%, according to new research from Grayscale.

ZEC went from approximately $60 to around $1,500 in twelve months, a roughly 19-fold increase that pushed its market cap near $13.74 billion by late August. For context, Bitcoin’s market cap hovered around $1.56 trillion at the time.

What’s driving the surge Grayscale’s report, published September 29, 2026, attributes the rally to growing demand for financial privacy. The thesis is straightforward: as blockchain transparency improves and on-chain surveillance tools proliferate, a segment of users and investors increasingly values the option to transact privately.

Zcash’s core feature, shielded transactions, lets users encrypt sender, receiver, and amount data while still settling on a public blockchain.

By late September 2026, ZEC was trading around $1,400, with its market cap reported near $23-24 billion, suggesting continued momentum even after the initial price spike earlier in the summer.

Grayscale frames the opportunity in relative terms. Bitcoin dominates what the firm calls the “currencies sector” of crypto, holding roughly 90-93% of that category’s total market cap.

The ETF factor On August 25, 2026, the firm launched its Zcash ETF under the ticker ZCSH on NYSE Arca. The product was a conversion of Grayscale’s longstanding Zcash Trust, which dates back to 2017.

Converting a trust into an ETF matters because it eliminates the persistent premium or discount to net asset value that plagued Grayscale’s earlier trust products. Now, ZCSH offers direct exposure to ZEC with the arbitrage mechanism that keeps ETF prices tethered to the underlying asset.

The ETF has reportedly attracted considerable inflows since launch.

Grayscale’s report includes hypothetical scenarios showing ZEC’s price at various levels of Bitcoin market-cap capture. If Zcash hit 2% of Bitcoin’s market cap, the implied ZEC price would land near $1,622. These are explicitly hypothetical, not forecasts.

Privacy’s moment, and the risks that come with it Zcash offers optional privacy that users can toggle on or off depending on the situation, using shielded transactions based on zero-knowledge proofs.

But privacy coins carry specific risks that Grayscale itself acknowledges. ZEC is significantly more volatile than Bitcoin. Regulatory risk looms larger too — several exchanges have delisted privacy-focused tokens in recent years under pressure from regulators concerned about money laundering.

Zcash also has a capped supply of 21 million coins, mirroring Bitcoin’s scarcity model.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Updated Published

2 min read

Zcash’s faster private-payment code is being rebuilt for its bigger scaling plan. (Shutterstock)Summary

Zcash developers have released Udon, a component that moves parts of the proposed Tachyon scaling upgrade into Zakura Common, software used to create and verify private transactions.While earlier Common improvements cut private-transaction creation times from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in some tests, Tachyon aims to limit the network’s workload as usage grows.Udon begins the integration but does not demonstrate Tachyon’s speed, and the proposed upgrade still requires further development and a security review before possible activation.The developers behind privacy-focused Zcash are moving part of their proposed scaling upgrade into software already used across the network, preparing for a future with far more private transactions.

That piece is Udon, a new component first developed as part of Project Tachyon, Zcash’s proposed scaling upgrade.

On Monday, Udon was released into Zakura Common, a shared cryptography library used by Zakura and other Zcash projects, according to Project Tachyon leader Sean Bowe. Think of Common as software that handles some of the heavy mathematical work behind creating and checking private transactions. Bowe’s team and Dev Ojha’s Valar Group jointly develop Zakura.

A Zcash wallet has to prove that a private payment is valid without revealing who paid whom or how much. Computers running the network then check that proof.

Earlier improvements to Common cut the time needed to create one from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in some tests, as CoinDesk reported in August.

If private payments become far more common, those computers will have much more data to handle.

Udon brings some of the calculations needed for Tachyon’s proposed scaling upgrade into Common, where developers can build on code they have already made faster. Udon has been released as software; the upgrade has not been activated on Zcash.

Read More: Zcash private transactions could go from three-second waits to under 200 milliseconds

Bowe and Ojha have set a long-term target of more than 50,000 payments a second. At that rate, they estimate today’s cryptography would make each Zcash node take in more than 500 megabytes of data every second.

Tachyon is intended to combine proofs from many payments so the nodes have far less to receive and check. Zcash computers would have less to check if many payments could share one proof. Creating that proof takes more memory, so Bowe’s team is building it with code they have already made faster in Common.

As such, Zcash is a long way from that volume as of Tuesday. ZecStats data show the network averaged about 11,700 transactions involving shielded funds a day in the seven days through Sept. 21, or roughly one every seven seconds. That average fell to about 6,200 a day in the seven days through Sept. 28.

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Grayscale filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 25 to register the ZCSH High Income ETF, an actively managed fund designed to earn income by trading options on Zcash exchange-traded products rather than buying the privacy coin directly. In a post-effective amendment to its Form N-1A registration statement, Grayscale Funds Trust proposes that the filing take effect 75 days after submission, around early December, and the prospectus does not yet assign a ticker or an exchange.

A synthetic covered-call strategy on Zcash funds The fund seeks current income while keeping prospects for capital appreciation through a synthetic covered-call strategy built on ZEC exchange-traded products, primarily The Zcash ETF (ticker: ZCSH). The filing says the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in options contracts that use a Zcash exchange-traded product as the reference asset, valuing each derivative at its notional amount. It plans to write, or sell, call options to collect premiums, while pairing bought calls with sold puts to replicate the underlying fund’s price movements. The 80% policy is non-fundamental and can be changed with at least 60 days of written notice.

Indirect exposure, no direct ZEC holdings The prospectus is explicit that the fund will not invest in digital assets directly, will not hold ZEC, and will not maintain a digital-asset wallet or control private keys. Because its exposure runs through derivatives, the fund cautions that it may not track the price of ZEC. ZCSH, by contrast, is a grantor trust sponsored by an affiliate of the fund’s adviser for the sole purpose of holding ZEC. The filing is the latest addition to Grayscale’s Zcash product line: the asset manager listed The Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca in August as the first U.S. spot exchange-traded fund holding a privacy coin, and options on the fund began trading in September.

What the filing leaves open The registration resolves little about the fund’s final form. The prospectus lists no ticker or listing exchange, and it states that the SEC has not approved or disapproved the securities. If the filing becomes effective as proposed, the fund would give investors a way to seek income from ZEC volatility without owning the token directly, through a series of Grayscale Funds Trust.

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Zcash price has gained about 102% over the past month to trade near $1,535 as co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson has repeated his forecast that ZEC will reach $5,000 by the end of 2026.

Summary

Ben-Sasson said his $5,000 year-end forecast remains on track after ZEC passed his earlier $1,200 target. ZEC recently traded above $1,600 before pulling back toward the $1,500 level. Grayscale’s U.S.-listed Zcash fund has surpassed $1 billion in assets roughly a month after its exchange debut. The daily chart places $1,625 above ZEC and $1,500 at the nearest marked level below its recent high. Ben-Sasson said in a recent X post that he still considers his $5,000 year-end prediction on track. He also said large holders had asked him about ZEC’s latest rise, while acknowledging that he did not know precisely what caused the move.

Why do I feel on track to my $5K EoY zcash:native prediction?

More and more whales asking me: Why price surge?

Me: No fucking clue.

What's your explanation?

Not investment advice, DYOR. https://t.co/E7J6YzYq4M

— Eli Ben-Sasson | Starknet.io (@EliBenSasson) September 24, 2026 The forecast follows an earlier call for ZEC to exceed $1,200 by Sep. 25. Zcash passed that price during its September rally and later traded above $1,600, putting the token well beyond the level Ben-Sasson had named for the month.

At roughly $1,535, a move to $5,000 would require ZEC to rise about 226%. The year-end figure remains Ben-Sasson’s prediction; his post did not identify a price model or a sequence of levels leading to it.

Zcash price holds above $1,500 after its monthly surge Zcash price traded near $1,535 on the Binance daily chart captured on Sep. 26. The session showed an opening price of $1,555.74, a high of $1,559.02, and a low of $1,527.56 at the time of the reading.

Price remained above the chart’s $1,500 Murrey Math level after pulling back from a recent peak above $1,600. The next marked level above price was $1,625, followed by $1,750. Below $1,500, the chart placed the next levels at $1,375 and $1,250.

Zcash price daily chart — Sep. 26 | Source: TradingView The daily average directional index, or ADX, stood at 60.44. ADX measures the strength of a trend without showing its direction; ZEC’s price action supplies the directional context after its climb through the September levels.

The speed of the advance has also brought sharp reversals. On Sep. 18, ZEC reached $1,535.82 before retreating toward $1,455, as previous Zcash price coverage detailed. At the time, the $1,500 level acted as resistance. ZEC has since moved above it, though its retreat from the latest high leaves that level close to the market again.

Earlier in September, ZEC rose from around $814 to more than $1,200. The rise included a move above $1,000 on Sep. 4, when short liquidations added to trading activity. Price then crossed $1,250 and $1,375 during the next leg of the rally.

Grayscale’s Zcash fund gives U.S. investors exchange access Grayscale’s Zcash product began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH on Aug. 25 after the firm converted its existing trust into an exchange-traded fund. The listing gave U.S. brokerage investors a way to gain ZEC exposure without buying and storing the token themselves, as crypto.news covered after its launch.

Grayscale launched the product with about $304 million in assets held by the former trust. Its assets passed $500 million within weeks and reached more than $1 billion roughly one month after the listing, according to Grayscale’s reported fund figures. Asset growth includes changes in the value of ZEC already held by the fund, as well as investment flows.

ZCSH is also approaching a change to its share structure. Grayscale has scheduled a three-for-one forward split, with investors on record at the close of Sep. 28 set to receive two additional shares for each share held. Distribution is scheduled for Sep. 29, and split-adjusted trading is due to begin before the market opens on Sep. 30.

The split will triple the number of shares held by each eligible investor while reducing the net asset value per share proportionately. It will not change the value of the investor’s holding at the time of the adjustment, according to the ZCSH split filing.

For U.S. investors comparing the fund with direct ZEC ownership, Grayscale states that ZCSH is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Its shares trade through brokerage accounts, while direct holders own the cryptocurrency itself.

Network upgrade plans add dates to the ZEC calendar Zcash developers have set an Oct. 6 testnet activation target for Network Upgrade 7, or NU7, according to the project’s published upgrade timeline. The plan includes reducing the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.

The proposed schedule calls for a final decision on mainnet activation on Oct. 20, after developers review the testnet rollout. Mainnet activation is targeted for Nov. 5. The upgrade package also includes changes to older transaction formats and the network’s funding mechanism.

Coinholders had backed the faster block target in a September poll. Nearly 99.9% of the participating ZEC supported the 25-second proposal, while about 98.9% favored retaining the existing halving schedule, according to coverage of the NU7 vote.

Outside the U.S., 21Shares launched a physically backed Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam in September. The product gives eligible European brokerage customers another route to ZEC exposure, weeks after ZCSH began trading in New York.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Zcash has climbed toward $1,600 following a series of sharp price increases, coinciding with the introduction of a new investment product in Europe. Investors in the region now have a fresh avenue to gain exposure to the privacy-focused cryptocurrency without taking on the risks or complexity of direct ownership.

On September 21, Swiss-based exchange-traded product issuer 21Shares launched the Zcash ETP, under the ticker ZCASH, designed for European investors. The ETP is physically backed, meaning that each share represents actual ZEC held in custody on behalf of investors. The product began trading with $100,212 in assets and 5,000 securities outstanding. Investors are subject to a 2.5% annual product fee, which impacts returns relative to holding ZEC directly.

21Shares is recognized as one of the largest providers of crypto ETPs in Europe, aiming to help traditional investors access digital assets through regulated and familiar investment vehicles.

Mini dictionary: Exchange-Traded Product (ETP), a type of security that tracks an underlying asset such as a cryptocurrency, commodity, or index, and trades on stock exchanges similarly to shares.

Price rally predates product launchZEC’s latest surge predates the introduction of the European ETP. Data from CoinGecko show Zcash closing near $1,111 on September 15, before surging above $1,300 on September 16 and reaching around $1,471 the day the ETP launched. The price momentum continued, pushing Zcash above $1,600.

Earlier gains were tracked by Coinpaper, which reported the break above $1,000. Additional factors behind the rally included an investment in ZEC by crypto investment firm Paradigm and anticipation for the network’s upcoming NU7 upgrade—a significant software update for the Zcash protocol scheduled to improve performance and security.

Mini dictionary: NU7 upgrade, a future protocol update to Zcash designed to enhance the blockchain’s scalability, privacy, and network rules.

ZEC’s rally began before the ETP’s introduction, with the new product becoming an additional access point rather than the driving force behind recent price action.

New investment options for European investorsThe launch of the Zcash ETP offers investors exposure through a typical brokerage setup, eliminating the need to manage digital wallets, private keys, or direct cryptocurrency custody. This approach is especially suited for institutions or individuals restricted to regulated investment vehicles.

In financial terms, holding $10,000 worth of ZEC in the ETP would cost investors about $250 per year in management fees, excluding any changes in ZEC’s value. Direct ZEC ownership does not incur recurring product fees, though it does require investors to assume full responsibility for security and storage.

OptionAnnual FeeCustody FormatTypical User21Shares Zcash ETP2.5%Brokerage account (regulated ETP)Traditional investors, institutionsDirect ZECNoneSelf-custody (wallets, private keys)Crypto-native usersWhile not the least expensive way to participate in Zcash’s price movements, the ETP’s primary benefit is offering streamlined, regulated access to the asset.

For those unable or unwilling to manage direct crypto holdings, ETPs provide access to $ZEC within an established financial framework.

8h05 ▪ 6 min read ▪ by Ariela R.

Summarize this article with:

In the crypto market, privacy coins are making one of the most spectacular comebacks. According to Glassnode data, the market capitalization of this segment rose from 11.97 billion dollars to 36.51 billion dollars in just five months. Zcash and Monero account for the bulk of this increase with an estimated valuation of 24.5 billion dollars. A figure that astonishes, especially knowing that the rest of the crypto assets have been struggling for months!

In Brief Crypto: +205% for privacy coins since April 2026, representing 24.54 billion dollars in gains. ZEC rises from $319 to $1,507, XMR climbs from $330 to $555 in five months. Grayscale launches the first crypto privacy ETF (ZCSH) listed on NYSE Arca on August 25, 2026. DCG injects $100 million into ZCSH on September 8, validating institutional appetite. The SEC closes its investigation on Zcash without sanction in January 2026, paving the way for ETFs. The Privacy Coin Sector Tripled in 5 Months According to archived data from CoinGecko, the privacy coin market was valued at 11.97 billion dollars on April 9, 2026. On Thursday, September 24, 2026, this same segment weighs 36.51 billion dollars. This represents a jump of about 205% in five months. Two crypto assets account for most of this movement: Zcash and Monero.

ZEC saw its market cap climb by 20.27 billion dollars. The price of this cryptocurrency went from $319 to $1,507 over the period. At the time of writing, it trades around $1,540. It shows an increase of over 3% in the last 24 hours.

For its part, the XMR token shows more modest growth with:

an estimated market capitalization of 4.33 billion dollars; a price growing from $330 to $555. Other crypto assets in the sector show gains, but nothing comparable to the scale of these two movements. Together, Zcash and Monero represent nearly all of the 24.54 billion dollars gained by the privacy coin segment.

Chart showing the price evolution of Zcash and Monero from April to September. Source: CoinGecko Why Is Crypto Privacy Coming Back to the Forefront? The answer lies in two words: blockchain surveillance and privacy. In 2025, illicit cryptocurrency transfers exceeded 154 billion dollars. They involved sanctioned actors like North Korea, Iran, or Russia. Faced with this reality, several governments and companies tightened surveillance of public blockchains in 2026.

Most of the major crypto networks remain fully auditable. This is notably the case for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Every transaction is traceable, as well as balances and movements. For a growing share of crypto investors, this transparency is a risk. According to them, financial freedom erodes when every payment can be scrutinized, restricted or punished.

Zcash and Monero offer an alternative. Their protocols make tracking flows extremely difficult, if not impossible.

ZEC uses zk-SNARKs (zero-knowledge proofs). XMR relies on Ring Signatures and Stealth Addresses. Result: a crypto that truly protects the anonymity of its users.

Chart showing the market capitalization evolution of privacy coins. Source: Glassnode The Second Driver Behind Zcash and Monero’s Rise Is Regulatory and Institutional In January 2026, the SEC officially closed its investigation on the Zcash Foundation without recommending prosecution. This sends a strong signal for a sector long perceived as toxic by crypto regulators.

On August 25, Grayscale converted its Zcash Trust into a spot crypto ETF: the ZCSH. It is listed on NYSE Arca. This is the first ETF on a confidential crypto in the United States. Thirteen days later (on September 8, 2026, to be exact), Digital Currency Group (DCG) traded about 100 million dollars of ZEC for shares of the ZCSH. A gesture that looks like an institutional vote of confidence!

The Other Side of the Crypto Coin: Chun Wang Calls the Rise a “Narrative Bid” F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang describes the current dynamics of the privacy coin market as a rise driven by narrative rather than actual use. In a tweet dated September 8, 2026, he stated:

A large market capitalization doesn’t mean a crypto asset earned its place.

More explicitly, Wang points to structural weaknesses in the Zcash crypto protocol. This includes:

the initial Founders’ Reward; governance conflicts; a vulnerability disclosed in May in the Orchard privacy pool. His sharpest argument concerns the very nature of the crypto:

A currency whose private supply cannot be verified like bitcoin’s, and that needed an emergency fix after a four-year bug, is not “hard money.”

His analysis thus raises an important question: is crypto privacy truly a sustainable investment, or is it simply the most powerful narrative right now in a market lacking catalysts?

Crypto: What Scenarios for the Privacy Coin Market? Several crypto analysts believe that the success of the ZCSH ETF could pave the way for similar crypto products on Monero or other privacy coins. This would force the SEC to rule on potentially more delicate cases.

Other experts think that growing institutional participation might create pressure for viewing keys or integrated compliance tools. Such a shift would create a philosophical fault line within the privacy coin ecosystem itself.

In any case, this gain of 24.5 billion dollars repositions crypto privacy at the center of the financial game. It remains to be seen whether this growth will be accompanied by a regulatory evolution compatible with their DNA. The answer could define the future of the entire crypto market. To be continued…

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Ariela R.

My name is Ariela, and I am 31 years old. I have been working in the field of web writing for 7 years now. I only discovered trading and cryptocurrency a few years ago, but it is a universe that greatly interests me. The topics covered on the platform allow me to learn more. A singer in my spare time, I also cultivate a great passion for music and reading (and animals!)

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Security Fixes and a Lower Fee StandardThe @ZcashFoundation has released Zebra 6.4.0 and 6.4.1, its latest updates to the Zebra node software. Node operators are strongly encouraged to upgrade straight to version 6.4.1.

One of the patched vulnerabilities allowed a peer to serve a block with a valid canonical hash but a forged body whose authorizing data did not match the header commitment. Zebra previously treated this as an ordinary invalid block, causing it to cancel the sync round and drop the block hash entirely, which could allow a malicious actor to stall syncing.

Both releases also lower the standard transaction fee. The mempool now accepts transactions that pay at least 1,000 zatoshis per ZIP-317 logical action, down from the previous 5,000. That translates to a fee of 0.00001 $ZEC per action.

A Tighter Deadline Before NU7The update carries an important timing change for node runners. The end-of-support window has been shortened from 15 weeks to 12 weeks, meaning Zebra 6.4.x will halt around November 2, just ahead of NU7's tentative November 5 activation. The Foundation acknowledged the shortened window is not ideal but said it is necessary to ensure nodes move to the NU7-supporting release in time. Operators can check their exact halt height and estimated time using the getdeprecationinfo RPC.

The pressure to upgrade is tied directly to what NU7 brings. Zcash developers are targeting November 5 for NU7, which would cut block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, making private payments up to three times faster. NU7 would also temporarily remove about 60% of transaction fees from circulation, with those funds scheduled to return as mining rewards from February 2031, while preserving Zcash's issuance and halving schedule. The final mainnet activation decision is due October 20, after NU7 reaches Zcash's test network on October 6.

For now, the immediate priority is clear. Node operators running Zebra must upgrade to version 6.4.1 and prepare for a further update, expected in the coming week, that will include full NU7 support before the early November halt.

Sources:
Zcash Foundation: Zebra 6.4.0 and 6.4.1 Release Notes
Zebra v6.4.0 GitHub Release
CoinDesk: Zcash Targets November Upgrade

Zcash's privacy features are drawing renewed attention. The network recorded 62,379 shielded transactions last week, its highest weekly total since 2022, according to the Zcash Open Development Lab. The figure also ranks fourth across the network's full on-chain history.

Privacy Usage Accelerates The spike in shielded activity comes after years of relatively muted usage and fits a broader trend of growing adoption of $ZEC's core privacy tools. Analysts view that pattern as a sign of genuine adoption rather than speculative noise, since exchange trading leaves no shielded footprint.

Price Surge Accompanies On-Chain Growth The on-chain resurgence has coincided with sharp price gains. $ZEC is up 36% over the past seven days and 216% year to date, reaching $1,610 at the time of writing.

The convergence of record shielded usage, institutional inflows via the new ETF, and easing regulatory pressure has placed Zcash at the center of what has become crypto's best-performing sector of the year. Whether the on-chain fundamentals can sustain the momentum will be the next test for the network.

Sources
Datawallet: Zcash Statistics and Trends 2026
DailyCoin: Zcash Price Surges 2,496% as Privacy Becomes the Trade of the Year
Crypto.news: Why 30% of Zcash Supply Is Now in the Shielded Pool

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Crypto's next phase could make privacy and post-quantum security increasingly important, according to Zcash cofounder Eli Ben-Sasson.

In a recent X post, Ben-Sasson identified two features he believes could eventually become baseline requirements across the crypto industry: privacy and post-quantum security.

Privacy has become an increasingly important topic as blockchain adoption grows, and researchers and developers are exploring post-quantum cryptography as a way to prepare digital systems for a future in which sufficiently powerful quantum computers could threaten some cryptographic schemes currently in use.

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The Zcash cofounder believes that for these two features to gain traction, "Both will have to be easy to use and at a low cost."

2 features that will become a baseline requirement for crypto:
- Privacy
- Post-quantum security

Both will have to be easy to use and at a low cost.

— Eli Ben-Sasson | Starknet.io (@EliBenSasson) September 23, 2026 Ben-Sasson's discussions in recent times, as seen in his X posts, have focused on these two features—privacy and post-quantum security—following recent advancements in the crypto space.

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In August, the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction was mined, thanks to StarkWare, a startup of which Ben-Sasson is a cofounder. The quantum-safe transaction was mined on the Bitcoin mainnet and was demonstrated to hold up against an adversary running a working quantum computer.

In a separate X post, Ben-Sasson highlighted privacy as being important for DeFi. Preparing for the quantum era remains important: according to the Zcash cofounder, the race to quantum-readiness needs to focus on two things: first, can a chain's cryptography withstand a quantum computer? And second, what will users have to do when a chain migrates to full post-quantum security?

Zcash developmentsIn recent developments, shielded Zcash activity just hit a four-year high: 62,379 transactions were sent in the past week, the highest weekly total since 2022.

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Zcash developers are targeting Nov. 5 to switch on NU7, the network's next major upgrade. The biggest improvement is set to be block time: the gap between each confirmed batch of transactions drops from 75 seconds to 25. The testnet activation for the upgrade is scheduled for October 6.

The main features included in the NU7 upgrade will be 25-second block spacing (ZIP-218), disabling v4 transactions, and NSM integration (ZIP-234 (alt), ZIP-235), following the poll results: preserving halvings, with reintroduction starting February 2031.

At the time of writing, Zcash was trading up 5.76% in the last 24 hours to $15.96 and up 27% weekly.

@Ledger has added native shielded @Zcash support to Ledger Wallet Desktop, letting users manage private $ZEC balances directly from Ledger's own software with every transaction confirmed on the hardware device itself.

Ironwood Only: What the Private Balance Covers The shielded balance display covers only $ZEC held in the Ironwood pool, the new shielded pool that went live on July 28, 2026, as part of the NU6.3 network upgrade. Ironwood replaced the older Orchard pool after researchers discovered a flaw in Orchard's zero-knowledge proof circuit that could have theoretically allowed counterfeit $ZEC to be created without leaving an on-chain trace. The new pool features formally verified proof circuits and quantum-resilient record-keeping, offering stronger security guarantees than its predecessor.

Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt transaction details, hiding the sender, receiver, and amount while still letting the network confirm a transaction is valid. Prior to recent updates, Ledger's Zcash capabilities were limited to transparent transactions, with only partial deshielding support added later, leaving a meaningful gap for privacy-focused holders who store $ZEC in cold storage.

November 5 Deadline for Zondax App Users The integration comes with an important deadline. Ledger will remove the older Zondax-built Zcash Shielded app from download on November 5, 2026. Holders who currently use that app need to migrate their funds before that date to avoid disruption.

The timing matters given how quickly funds have been moving into Ironwood since its activation. The new pool has already attracted millions of $ZEC from users migrating out of the legacy Orchard pool, which is now restricted to withdrawals only under a turnstile mechanism that caps outflows to verifiable deposits.

Bringing shielded support natively into Ledger's own app removes the reliance on third-party tooling and keeps the signing process within the Ledger device, which is the security model most hardware wallet users expect from the outset.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Zcash Ironwood (NU6.3) upgrade activates
Crypto Briefing: Zcash gains Ledger support for shielded ZEC transactions

Zcash users holding ZEC in the network’s legacy Sprout shielded pool should move it before the planned NU7 upgrade or risk losing the ability to spend it.

Under Zcash Improvement Proposal-2003, NU7 would stop accepting the older transaction format that allows users to spend Sprout funds. ZEC left in the pool would become unspendable after the upgrade.

The proposal would not burn Sprout funds and leaves open the possibility of restoring access later. However, it warns that holders may never be able to spend funds left in the pool.

A user posting as “vaspholdings” on the Zcash Community Forum urged ZEC holders on Sunday to check old wallets before the upgrade. Those wallets may contain Sprout ZEC, transparent ZEC or both, the user wrote. Only funds in the Sprout pool face the proposed restriction.

Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox also shared the warning on X.

NU7 is scheduled to activate on testnet Oct. 6. Zcash expects to decide on Oct. 20 whether to proceed with the targeted Nov. 5 mainnet activation.

The upgrade would also cut Zcash’s target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. Its planned changes to issuance would preserve the network’s halving schedule.

ZEC traded at $1,627.82 at the time of writing, up 8% in the past 24 hours and almost 40% over the past week, according to CoinGecko.

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Zcash (ZEC) surged to $1,635.01 after posting an 11.16% gain in the latest trading session, extending an uptrend that began with a breakout in late August. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency now trades well above its summer range, prompting discussion among analysts over potential short-term volatility despite a robust longer-term outlook.

Analyst highlights short-term risks amid strong rallyJesse Oslen, a cryptocurrency analyst, observed signs of a potential pullback in ZEC following its recent price spike. He pointed to a bearish divergence on the daily chart and the appearance of a reversal candle, indicating that the token could soon retest support levels if buyers lose momentum.

ZEC maintains a bullish structure on higher time frames, but recent technical signals like bearish divergence and a reversal candle suggest that a retest of key support or further downside is possible.

Oslen also stated that if a correction occurs, it could offer an attractive entry point for investors, as the broader trend remains positive. He referenced the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) near $1,262.71 as a crucial level to monitor. A sustained dip below this support could intensify selling pressure.

Zcash trades far above key technical levelsTradingView data shows ZEC moved between $390 and $530 throughout the summer before breaking out in late August, quickly accelerating to the current highs. This rapid ascent has left the price significantly above all major moving averages.

The 20-day EMA, holding near $1,262.71, serves as the first key support. The gap between the latest price and this average underlines the strength of recent buying, but also exposes the token to a sharper correction if momentum fades.

Technically, the 20, 50, 100, and 200-day moving averages remain in bullish alignment, while the MACD oscillator continues to signal positive momentum with its main line at 189.87 above the signal line near 164.28. However, the bearish divergence observed on daily charts suggests momentum could be peaking in the near term.

Derivatives and new ETP drive market attentionDerivatives market activity for ZEC has intensified. According to Coinglass, ZEC futures trading volume increased by 9.74% to $7.66 billion, while open interest climbed 14.67% to $3.27 billion. These rising figures point to greater trader activity and the potential for increased price swings, though current data does not reveal a clear bullish or bearish tilt in sentiment.

Both ZEC derivatives volume and open interest reached new highs, signaling heightened engagement among traders and the possibility of further volatility as leveraged positions accumulate.

Adding to the momentum, 21Shares rolled out the first physically backed Zcash exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe. The ETP, trading under the ticker ZCASH, is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris. European investors can now gain exposure to ZEC without taking on the technical challenges of wallet management or private key custody.

Zcash operates with a fixed supply of 21 million coins and combines Bitcoin‘s monetary model with advanced privacy protections, such as cryptographic shielded transactions. This focus on privacy could appeal to investors seeking a differentiated asset within the cryptocurrency space.

The rapid growth seen in ZEC has prompted some market observers to emphasize the importance of monitoring technical indicators like the RSI and trend lines, as these provide valuable context for timing entries and exits. In parallel, the surge in meme token markets has demonstrated how internet-driven trends can quickly generate substantial financial activity. Fomo App data recently highlighted a “Niu Lai” transaction turning a $99 stake into about $370,000, underscoring the role of timing and token selection. Fomo App integrates token discovery, trading tools, social feeds, and real-time investor activity, helping traders navigate fast-moving meme token markets.

For Zcash, the 20-day EMA at $1,262.71 remains a pivotal technical level. Price action above this line could sustain further gains, while a break below it might drive a deeper setback. Momentum, derivative flows, and institutional product launches are likely to keep ZEC in focus for the weeks ahead.

21Shares is extending its single-asset lineup into two different niches: DeFi through ETHFI and privacy-focused crypto through ZEC. Both products charge 2.50% annually, creating a considerably higher cost hurdle than the issuer’s core Bitcoin and Ethereum products. Zcash now has exchange-traded investment vehicles in Europe and the U.S., while ETHFI tests demand for listed exposure to individual DeFi protocols. 21Shares is pushing its European crypto lineup further beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum with exchange-traded products tied to ether.fi’s ETHFI token and Zcash.

The 21Shares ether.fi ETP, ticker ETHFI, and 21Shares Zcash ETP, ticker ZCASH, began trading on Euronext Paris and Euronext Amsterdam on September 22. Both are physically backed, meaning the products hold the underlying cryptoassets rather than using derivatives to replicate their performance. Each charges a 2.50% annual product fee.

That fee is a meaningful part of the investment case. By comparison, 21Shares’ Ethereum Staking ETP charges 1.49%, while its Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently carry a 0.10% fee under an extended waiver through June 2027. The new ETPs therefore sit at the more expensive end of the issuer’s range, consistent with the economics of narrower single-asset products.

For an investor comparing the ETP with a hypothetical fee-free direct holding, a 2.50% annual charge creates a 2.5-percentage-point performance drag before trading costs and other factors. The wrapper removes private-key management, but that convenience comes at a material price.

ETHFI Brings a DeFi Protocol Token Into a Brokerage Account The ether.fi product packages exposure to a token whose investment case has been changing alongside the protocol itself.

ether.fi began as a liquid-restaking platform but has expanded into a broader set of onchain financial services spanning staking, lending, swaps, payments and spending products. 21Shares argues that the protocol’s revenue mix is increasingly shifting beyond staking, giving ETHFI exposure to a wider financial ecosystem rather than a single DeFi activity.

The ETP changes the route investors use to obtain that exposure. Instead of opening a crypto account, acquiring ETHFI and managing a wallet, investors can hold the security through the same type of brokerage account used for conventional investments.

21Shares’ product page currently reports approximately $11 million in assets under management and a 2.50% product fee. It also reports a variable staking yield that accrues daily to the ETP’s net asset value. The yield is not fixed and should not be treated as a guaranteed offset to the management fee.

The underlying risk remains tied to ETHFI. Easier custody does not remove token volatility, protocol-specific risks or ether.fi’s dependence on maintaining activity across its expanding suite of products.

Zcash Gets a European Exchange-Traded Wrapper The ZCASH product targets a very different thesis.

Zcash is built around optional transaction privacy, allowing users to use shielded transactions that can limit the information publicly exposed onchain. ZEC also has a maximum supply of 21 million coins, giving the asset a scarcity structure that resembles Bitcoin at the issuance level while serving a different use case.

The launch is particularly timely because regulated investment access to ZEC has expanded rapidly.

Grayscale launched its U.S.-listed Zcash product on NYSE Arca in August, giving American investors a regulated route to spot ZEC exposure. 21Shares is now extending exchange-traded access in Europe through Euronext Paris and Amsterdam. The products operate under different regulatory structures, but together they give Zcash listed investment vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic.

That is notable for a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, a category that has historically faced more friction with centralized exchanges and regulated financial intermediaries than Bitcoin or Ethereum.

The question is whether easier brokerage access creates persistent demand or simply captures interest generated by ZEC’s recent market performance.

The Same ETP Wrapper Covers Two Different Bets Launching ETHFI and ZCASH together should not obscure how different the underlying exposures are.

ETHFI is primarily a protocol bet. Its investment case increasingly depends on whether ether.fi can turn its staking base into sustained activity across lending, payments, swaps and other financial services.

ZEC is primarily a privacy and monetary-asset bet. Demand depends more heavily on the value investors place on transaction privacy, cryptographic development and a capped token supply.

Both shift custody away from the investor. Buyers avoid managing wallets and private keys, but instead rely on the ETP issuer, institutional custodians and securities-market infrastructure.

Neither wrapper removes crypto volatility. The ETP simplifies access to the underlying asset; it does not transform its economic risk into that of a conventional equity or bond.

That makes future flows useful for different reasons. ETHFI can test whether investors want exchange-traded exposure to individual DeFi protocols. ZCASH can provide evidence of whether demand for privacy-focused assets extends into conventional investment accounts.

A 2.50% Fee Sets a Higher Performance Hurdle The fee deserves particular attention because crypto ETP competition has pushed costs sharply lower at the largest end of the market.

21Shares’ Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently charge just 0.10% under a temporary fee waiver, while its Ethereum Staking ETP carries a 1.49% fee. Several of the issuer’s more specialized products have historically charged 2.50%.

That creates a clear divide in the product lineup.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have enough scale and issuer competition to support increasingly aggressive pricing. A niche token ETP must spread custody, administration, market-making and other product costs across a potentially much smaller asset base.

For ETHFI, staking income could partly offset the product fee when yields are positive, although both staking returns and token prices can change. ZCASH does not have the same staking mechanism, leaving the management charge as a more direct drag on exposure.

The 2.50% price therefore raises the bar for both products: convenience and regulated brokerage access need to be valuable enough for investors to accept a substantially higher recurring cost than they would pay for mainstream crypto ETPs.

Crypto ETP Competition Is Moving Down the Asset Curve European crypto ETPs have already expanded well beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. 21Shares’ own catalogue includes single-asset exposure across numerous networks and tokens, and company filings show that a 2.50% fee is already used across several specialized products.

The harder question is whether simply making an asset available through an ETP is enough to build a durable market around it.

ETHFI and ZEC provide an interesting test because their investment cases have little in common. One derives much of its relevance from activity inside an evolving DeFi ecosystem. The other is built around privacy technology and monetary scarcity.

For ETHFI, assets under management, secondary-market liquidity and the contribution of staking income to NAV will show whether investors are willing to pay for packaged DeFi exposure.

For ZCASH, net flows and trading liquidity will offer a cleaner measure of whether renewed interest in privacy assets is translating into longer-term investment demand.

Bitcoin and Ethereum proved that crypto can support large exchange-traded investment markets. ETHFI and ZCASH will test something harder: how far down the crypto asset curve that model can travel before higher fees and narrower demand begin to limit its scale.

Alexander Zdravkov is a crypto journalist and market analyst specializing in digital assets, blockchain technology, and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market. He entered the industry more than four years ago, drawn to the speed of innovation in crypto and the potential of blockchain-based financial systems to reshape traditional markets. His work focuses on understanding the forces behind crypto market movements, from Bitcoin and altcoin cycles to institutional adoption, regulation, exchange-traded products, stablecoins, DeFi, and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Rather than simply following price action, Alexander looks at liquidity, investor positioning, market structure, and macroeconomic conditions to identify developing trends and explain what they could mean for digital assets. With a degree in International Relations, he brings a broader perspective to cryptocurrency coverage by connecting developments in the sector with monetary policy, geopolitics, regulation, and global capital flows. This allows him to examine crypto not as an isolated market, but as an increasingly interconnected part of the global financial system. Over the course of more than five years in financial journalism, Alexander has written over 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, traditional markets, and the global economy. His reporting spans Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, DeFi protocols, institutional crypto adoption, regulation, market infrastructure, security incidents, and major developments shaping the wider digital asset industry. His approach is centered on giving readers context behind the numbers and headlines, explaining not only what is happening in crypto markets, but why it matters and what could come next.

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Key Highlights The privacy-focused token ZEC surged to a peak of $1,521 following an impressive 2,800% annual gain. Grayscale announced a 3-for-1 forward share split for its Zcash ETF, effective with split-adjusted trading on Sept. 30. The ZCSH fund has accumulated over $233 million in total inflows following its August 25 debut. Net assets under management approached $890 million with cumulative trading exceeding $11 billion. Market analyst Ardi observed simultaneous buying activity from retail investors, mid-tier traders, and institutional participants. The privacy token Zcash (ZEC) continued trading near all-time highs following its surge to $1,521, as interest in Grayscale’s corresponding exchange-traded fund continued growing.

Zcash (ZEC) Price The cryptocurrency focused on transaction privacy has experienced a remarkable 2,800% appreciation over the twelve-month period. This recent price action has drawn significant attention to both the underlying token and its ETF wrapper.

Grayscale has submitted documentation for implementing a 3-for-1 forward stock split of its Zcash exchange-traded fund, listed under the symbol ZCSH.

Investors holding shares at the market close on September 28 will receive two additional shares for each existing share in their portfolio.

The distribution of these additional shares is slated for after-hours on September 29. Trading reflecting the split adjustment will commence on September 30.

ZCSH fund sees $233 million in cumulative capital flows This corporate action will lower the per-share trading price while proportionally expanding the total share count.

To illustrate: a position consisting of 10 shares valued at $300 per share would transform into 30 shares priced around $100 each. The aggregate portfolio value remains constant throughout this process.

Since its market debut on August 25, ZCSH has recorded more than $233 million in aggregate capital inflows.

The investment vehicle registered a single-day inflow of $46.6 million on Wednesday, with an even larger $112 million influx documented on September 8.

By September 17, the ETF’s assets under management had climbed to approximately $890 million, while cumulative trading activity surpassed the $11 billion threshold.

Additional momentum arrived after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang revealed his firm had acquired ZEC tokens, though the specific quantity remains undisclosed.

Purchasing activity emerges across multiple investor segments Cryptocurrency analyst Ardi documented evolving patterns in ZEC acquisition behavior through a social media update on X.

According to Ardi’s analysis, medium-sized market participants executing transactions ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 maintained upward pressure on the cumulative volume delta.

He further noted that smaller retail transactions under $10,000 and substantial orders between $100,000 and $10 million have joined the buying wave. During earlier rally phases, medium-tier participants had largely driven price appreciation independently.

Network mining operations have similarly intensified. The Zcash network’s solution rate climbed from approximately 25 GSol/s in late August to nearly 32 GSol/s, while mining difficulty reached roughly 291 million.

Current market conditions position ZEC close to its recent $1,521 high-water mark as ETF capital flows, diversified buying pressure, and elevated mining engagement continue supporting the ongoing rally.

Less than a month after converting its legacy Zcash Trust into a full-blown spot ETF, Grayscale now controls nearly 600,000 ZEC. That’s roughly 3.52% of the entire circulating supply of a coin explicitly designed so nobody could track who holds what.

The fund, trading under ticker ZCSH on NYSE Arca, held 596,268.94 ZEC as of September 18, 2026. That figure represents a 28.4% increase from the holdings it started with when the ETF launched on August 25. The kicker: none of that growth came from Grayscale buying coins on the open market.

How in-kind transfers inflated the fund The entire 28% jump was driven by in-kind creations, a mechanism where authorized participants deposit actual ZEC into the fund in exchange for newly issued ETF shares.

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The single largest contributor was DCG International Investments Ltd., which deposited approximately 85,705 ZEC on September 8, valued at around $100 million at the time. DCG, of course, is the parent company of Grayscale, making this less of a vote of confidence from the outside and more of a reshuffling within the family.

Still, the numbers are hard to dismiss entirely. ZCSH pulled in over $70 million in inflows during its first two weeks of trading. By mid-September, additional weekly contributions of roughly $60.5 million pushed the fund’s estimated assets under management into the $876 to $914 million range. One particularly active day saw $46.6 million flow in.

The only game in town ZCSH is the only listed spot exchange-traded product offering direct exposure to ZEC on a US exchange. The fund converted from Grayscale’s existing Zcash Trust, which had an initial AUM of approximately $304 million at launch. In under a month, that figure has nearly tripled.

Coinbase Custody serves as the custodian, and the fund charges a 2.5% expense ratio.

Grayscale also announced a 3-for-1 forward share split scheduled for September 28, 2026. The move would lower the per-share price and theoretically improve accessibility for smaller investors.

Privacy coins and the institutional paradox Zcash occupies a somewhat more palatable position than its peers because it offers optional privacy. Transactions can be either transparent (similar to Bitcoin) or shielded using zero-knowledge proofs.

For ZEC’s market dynamics, having nearly 3.52% of the circulating supply locked inside a single fund creates a meaningful supply constraint.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Grayscale plans a 3-for-1 split for ZCSH. Split-adjusted trading is scheduled for September 30. The move follows rapid growth since its August debut. Options make the lower share price more relevant. Grayscale plans a 3-for-1 share split for its Zcash ETF (ZCSH) less than five weeks after its NYSE Arca debut, following a rapid increase in assets and the launch of an options market around the product.

Shareholders of record on September 28, 2026 will receive two additional shares for every ZCSH share they hold, with split-adjusted trading expected to begin on September 30. The adjustment triples the number of shares held while reducing the value represented by each share proportionately.

What the ZCSH Split Means for Investors A forward split changes the unit size of an investment, not its underlying economics.

For example, an investor holding 10 ZCSH shares at $300 each would have a $3,000 position. After a 3-for-1 split, that investor would hold 30 shares worth roughly $100 each, assuming the underlying value remained unchanged.

The fund does not acquire additional ZEC because of the split, and an investor’s proportional ownership does not increase simply because the number of shares changes.

The practical effect is a lower nominal price per ZCSH share, which can make smaller position sizes easier to construct for investors who do not use fractional shares.

ZCSH Crossed $500M Within Two Weeks The timing follows an unusually active first few weeks of exchange trading.

ZCSH began trading on NYSE Arca on August 25, giving brokerage-account investors spot exposure to ZEC without requiring them to purchase and custody the cryptocurrency directly. Grayscale described it at launch as the first exchange-traded product globally offering spot ZEC exposure.

Two weeks later, the fund reported more than $500 million in assets under management, while options on ZCSH began trading on NYSE Arca the same day.

The headline AUM figure, however, needs some context.

Grayscale said cumulative inflows since the ETP launch exceeded $70 million, while another approximately $100 million came from DCG International Investments, an indirect subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. DCG is also the indirect parent of Grayscale Investments Sponsors, making that investment affiliate capital rather than independent investor demand.

The sequence has moved quickly: ZCSH launched on August 25, crossed $500 million and added options on September 8, and announced its planned share split on September 18.

Options Give the Split More Practical Significance For someone simply holding ZCSH shares, the split is largely an adjustment to the size of each unit.

The options market makes the lower share price more consequential.

Standard U.S. listed equity and ETF option contracts typically represent 100 shares. The nominal share price therefore influences the dollar exposure represented by a standard contract.

A lower ZCSH share price can make options positions easier to size once the derivatives market has been adjusted for the split.

Existing contracts require their own treatment to preserve economic equivalence through a corporate action. The precise adjustment for outstanding ZCSH options should therefore be taken from the relevant exchange and Options Clearing Corporation notices rather than assuming that existing contracts simply convert into ordinary post-split contracts.

This makes options activity after September 30 more informative than the split itself. Open interest, trading volume and bid-ask spreads will show whether reducing the nominal share price actually broadens participation.

ZCSH Is Structurally Different From a Conventional ETF The product’s regulatory structure also deserves attention.

Despite its Zcash ETF name, Grayscale states that ZCSH is an exchange-traded product that is not an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. It therefore does not receive the same regulatory protections as ETFs and mutual funds registered under the 1940 Act.

Investors also do not own ZEC directly. They own shares providing exposure to the cryptocurrency held through the fund structure.

That distinction is particularly useful for crypto-native investors because a traditional share split should not be confused with a change in a cryptocurrency’s token supply.

Nothing about the ZCSH split changes Zcash’s 21 million ZEC maximum supply, its issuance schedule or its network economics.

September 30 Will Shift the Focus to Liquidity The split comes after ZCSH moved from launch to more than $500 million in reported AUM and an active options market within weeks. But none of those developments means the split itself creates additional demand for ZEC.

The more useful test begins after split-adjusted trading starts.

Share volume, bid-ask spreads and options open interest will indicate whether the lower nominal price improves trading accessibility. Future fund flows will separately show whether outside investors continue adding capital after the initial launch period.

That distinction matters because ZCSH’s early growth contains several components: existing assets, independent inflows, an affiliate investment and changes in the market value of its ZEC holdings.

The 3-for-1 split changes none of those fundamentals. What it can change is the size of the unit through which investors trade them, making liquidity after September 30 the more meaningful number to watch.

Alexander Zdravkov is a crypto journalist and market analyst specializing in digital assets, blockchain technology, and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market. He entered the industry more than four years ago, drawn to the speed of innovation in crypto and the potential of blockchain-based financial systems to reshape traditional markets. His work focuses on understanding the forces behind crypto market movements, from Bitcoin and altcoin cycles to institutional adoption, regulation, exchange-traded products, stablecoins, DeFi, and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Rather than simply following price action, Alexander looks at liquidity, investor positioning, market structure, and macroeconomic conditions to identify developing trends and explain what they could mean for digital assets. With a degree in International Relations, he brings a broader perspective to cryptocurrency coverage by connecting developments in the sector with monetary policy, geopolitics, regulation, and global capital flows. This allows him to examine crypto not as an isolated market, but as an increasingly interconnected part of the global financial system. Over the course of more than five years in financial journalism, Alexander has written over 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, traditional markets, and the global economy. His reporting spans Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, DeFi protocols, institutional crypto adoption, regulation, market infrastructure, security incidents, and major developments shaping the wider digital asset industry. His approach is centered on giving readers context behind the numbers and headlines, explaining not only what is happening in crypto markets, but why it matters and what could come next.

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Delphi Digital just made its deep-dive Zcash report available to the public. Titled “Zcash: Encrypted Money for a Surveilled World,” the report lays out a case that ZEC has been building momentum on multiple fronts: shielded-pool adoption is surging, a major protocol upgrade is on the horizon, and regulatory headwinds have calmed considerably.

The headline number is hard to ignore. The share of Zcash’s circulating supply held in shielded pools jumped from roughly 11% to nearly 30% in the span of a single year. Nearly 1 million additional ZEC migrated into shielded addresses since October 2025 alone.

Privacy adoption is accelerating Zcash has long offered optional privacy through its shielded transactions powered by zk-SNARKs, a form of zero-knowledge cryptography that lets users prove a transaction is valid without revealing the sender, receiver, or amount. The problem was that most users never bothered to use it. Transparent transactions were easier, and the privacy pool remained small enough that using it could, paradoxically, draw attention.

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The transaction volume data underscores the growing activity. ZEC recorded approximately $285 million in transaction volume over a 30-day window before the report’s February 5 publication date. For comparison, Bitcoin logged $348 million in the same timeframe.

The Tachyon upgrade and quantum resistance Perhaps the most forward-looking element of Delphi’s analysis centers on the Tachyon upgrade, a protocol overhaul scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. Tachyon aims to improve transaction efficiency and scaling while layering in post-quantum privacy features.

The “harvest now, decrypt later” threat is real. Adversaries can store encrypted blockchain data today and attempt to crack it once quantum hardware matures. The Tachyon upgrade would incorporate cryptographic primitives designed to withstand quantum attacks, making ZEC one of the few major digital assets proactively addressing the threat.

Regulatory clarity and institutional interest The SEC concluded its investigation into the Zcash Foundation without taking any enforcement action. That regulatory clarity appears to be catalyzing institutional moves. Grayscale is actively pursuing a spot ZEC ETF, which would give traditional investors exposure to Zcash through a familiar wrapper without needing to manage private keys or navigate crypto exchanges directly.

Delphi’s report notes high-profile stakeholders including the Winklevoss twins and VanEck as supporters of the Zcash ecosystem.

A vulnerability that was discovered and patched in Zcash’s Orchard layer reportedly caused notable market fluctuations, serving as a reminder that cutting-edge cryptography carries its own risks.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Zcash’s governance crisis is back in the headlines again, with funding for developers (via the Dev Fund) and the voting mechanism facing strong scrutiny. 

The Dev Fund, meant to support ongoing development, including security and engineering of the Zcash network, gets 20% of all block rewards. For some, the fund is inflationary and a tax on ZEC holders that should be abolished and allow developers to seek private funding. 

However, others feel the Dev Fund should be kept. Joining the debate, Matt Huang, founder of VC and blockchain research firm Paradigm, took a slightly different stance. 

We believe the Dev Fund is important, particularly in this age of AI cyber capabilities, rate of quantum progress, etc.

However, he disagreed with the governance voting mechanism, warning that the current approach that depends squarely on coinholders can affect ZEC’s valuation. 

We think pure coinvoting governance introduces unpredictability that could limit long-term trust as a monetary asset, and it is better for the project to combine coinvoting with other forms of governance.

Source: X What’s at stake amid the Zcash governance crisis? It’s worth pointing out that Aave faced a similar governance crisis recently. Independent developers and tokenholders disagreed with Stani Kulechov’s (founder) push to control revenue and brand rights.

The results? AAVE’s price tanked, and the trust-rebuilding is still ongoing. 

It seems Huang fears a similar fallout for ZEC, a token viewed as a better privacy-focused alternative to Bitcoin. Although he didn’t disclose his preferred hybrid voting mechanism, Huang’s stance sparked mixed responses. 

For his part, investor Naval Ravikant disagreed with him, warning that off-chain third parties will create endless politics. 

Blockchains are markets, not democracies or aristocracies.

Source: X But Josh Swihart, founder of Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), an independent developer, echoed Huang’s views. However, he called for the network’s outcomes to be clear so that the exact funding can be decided for those objectives. 

For perspective, the Dev Fund directs 60% to ‘Lockbox’ as the community debates how to govern and share it. 

The remaining 40% goes to Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) and is issued to independent developers within the ecosystem. The Lockbox holds about $37M. 

Source: The Block ZEC price explodes 30% to a record high Despite the governance debate, ZEC exploded 30% this week to a record high of $1396. The rally followed massive $18M single-whale accumulation and short liquidations. In particular, Garret Jin suffered a $26M loss in his ZEC short position. 

However, if the debate spirals out of hand and reverses the rally, a pullback to $1K or $800 would offer new buying opportunities. 

Source: ZEC/USDT, TradingView  Final Summary Paradigm founder warned that ZEC could be devalued amid Dev Fund and voting debate. ZEC price hit a new record of about $1.4K amid record whale buying, shrugging off the governance crisis. 

Zcash (ZEC) rallied 16% in the past 24 hours, reaching $1,382 and outpacing a broader cryptocurrency market that posted losses following the CLARITY Act’s failure in the US Senate and a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

Market performance and trading volumeBitcoin momentarily slipped below $75,700 on Wednesday before recovering to $76,500. Meanwhile, Ethereum traded above $2,440 amid overall cautious sentiment. In contrast, Zcash recorded a sharp uptrend, accompanied by a 14% increase in trading volume over the same period, signaling robust market participation.

Zcash’s resilience stood out as most major cryptocurrencies struggled following heightened regulatory uncertainty. The CLARITY Act failed to pass a Senate procedural vote, reducing expectations for comprehensive US digital asset legislation in 2026. The Federal Reserve also raised rates by 25 basis points to a new range of 3.75%–4%, a move that added pressure to traditional and crypto markets alike.

Despite the negative backdrop, Zcash has advanced approximately 163% since the start of the year, making it one of the top performers among large-cap coins. The token’s rise also pushed it ahead of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token in market capitalization after HYPE fell 6.5% over the past week.

Zcash’s surge was supported by increased adoption of its privacy features. According to ZecHub, shielded transactions comprised 47% of recent network activity. These ensure that information such as sender, recipient, and transaction amounts are concealed, underpinning Zcash’s core value proposition.

Zcash completed its migration to the Ironwood vault, a significant technical upgrade for the network. The Ironwood vault aims to improve long-term security and support additional privacy features for users.

Mini dictionary: Ironwood vault, Zcash’s latest protocol upgrade focused on enhanced privacy and security for shielded transactions on the network.

Zcash users supported proposals linked to the upcoming network upgrade, NU7, which aims to reduce block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds while maintaining the Bitcoin-style halving schedule. Nearly 2.4 million ZEC participated in the voting out of a possible 3.6 million eligible tokens.

Further bolstering confidence, Zcash Labs allocated $80,000 to integrate the Ironwood pool with Ledger hardware wallets, allowing ZEC holders self-custody options.

Social sentiment and activity trendsDespite the price rally, recent data showed a dip in Zcash-related social-media mentions, with the seven-day moving average falling beneath the 30-day average. Analysts monitor this so-called “bearish crossover” as a potential early signal of waning speculative interest among retail participants.

The recent upward movement could reignite community discussion, but if social engagement remains weak while prices rise, it may suggest a divergence likely to impact future momentum.

Still, trading volume remains strong, reinforcing that institutional and active market participant interest has not faded with the latest spike. Reported 24-hour volume increased by 14%, pointing to healthy liquidity around ZEC during this move.

Technical outlook: $1,750 target and wider market risksZcash’s daily chart currently reveals a bullish consolidation pattern, following its move toward $1,400. Technical analysts suggest a confirmed break above $1,300 supports a possible move to $1,750. Should momentum persist, longer-term targets could approach $2,500, predicated on the recent breakout above an ascending triangle formation.

However, the token’s ability to reach these levels will hinge on continued privacy-focused demand and broader crypto market conditions. The Fed’s latest rate hike has increased uncertainty, and Zcash’s resilience as the market digests tighter monetary policy could be a deciding factor in its near-term performance.

Coin24-hour % changeCurrent priceYear-to-date % performanceLast 7 days % changeZcash (ZEC)+16%$1,382+163%+14%Bitcoin (BTC)-2%$76,500+70%-3%Ethereum (ETH)-1%$2,440+46%-2%HYPE-6.5%N/AN/A-6.5%

Fortitude Mining has appointed former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton as chief executive as the Zcash-focused miner prepares to go public through a proposed merger with HeartSciences. Leverton will succeed Andrea Childs as CEO on Sept. 21, with Childs moving to chief operating officer.

Fortitude mined 72,696 ZEC in the first half of 2026, accounting for about 28% of the network’s total production during the period. The company reported revenue of $20.9 million for the second quarter.

It operates more than 60 megawatts of power capacity across seven sites in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas and New York, and in July agreed to purchase 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro machines, which are expected to add 7.56 GSol/s of equihash hashrate. Shipments are expected in the fourth quarter.

Fortitude, wholly owned by Digital Currency Group, has mined ZEC since 2019 and launched as a vertically integrated mining platform in 2025.

The company announced its proposed combination with HeartSciences in June, with the transaction expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and bring Fortitude to the public markets. The combined company is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE, subject to approval.

Leverton previously served as CEO of Hut 8, where she oversaw the Bitcoin miner’s merger with US Bitcoin Corp. and its transition into a US-domiciled Nasdaq-listed company. Current CEO Andrea Childs will transition to the chief operating officer role.

Zcash surges amid Paradigm investmentZcash continued its rally on Thursday, with ZEC, the native token of the blockchain designed to enable private transactions using zero-knowledge proofs, trading around $1,424. The token has gained about 185% over the past 30 days and more than 2,600% over the past year, according to CoinGecko.

The latest gains came after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed Wednesday that the crypto investment firm holds ZEC and is an investor in the Zcash Open Development Lab.

Huang described Zcash as a “private complement to Bitcoin” and backed its inflation-funded developer fund, arguing that long-term funding for privacy technology is increasingly important as artificial intelligence and quantum computing advance.

Over the past year, privacy-focused cryptocurrencies have outperformed the broader crypto market. As of Sept. 6, the sector was up 213% from Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak, while every other crypto sector tracked by Glassnode remained below its level at the time.

ZEC accounted for 62% of the privacy sector’s market capitalization, according to Glassnode data. Excluding ZEC, the firm’s cap-weighted basket of privacy tokens was still up 85% over the past year.

Source: Glassnode

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3 min read

Zcash holders overwhelmingly back faster transactions and bitcoin-style halvings. (Shutterstock)Summary

Nearly 2.4 million ZEC, or about two-thirds of eligible tokens, participated in a privacy-preserving vote on Zcash’s next major network upgrade, NU7.Participating holders overwhelmingly backed cutting block times to 25 seconds, preserving Zcash’s bitcoin-style halving schedule and launching NU7 as soon as possible.Voters also supported delaying the reissuance of fees collected through the Network Sustainability Mechanism until February 2031 and disabling transactions tied to the obsolete Sprout privacy system.Holders of privacy token zcash (ZEC) voted overwhelmingly in favor of faster transactions and preserving the network's bitcoin-style halving schedule in a governance vote that drew roughly two-thirds of the ZEC eligible to participate.

Nearly 2.4 million ZEC voted on the initiative, dubbed NU7, out of roughly 3.6 million ZEC eligible at the snapshot. The results are weighted by ZEC rather than the number of individual people voting, with one eligible ZEC representing one vote.

How the voting workedOrganizers had set 1 million ZEC as the minimum turnout needed to treat the result as representative of coin holders.

Some 99.9% of the 2.4 million ZEC that participated in voting backed cutting the time between blocks to 25 seconds from 75 seconds. Blocks are batches of transactions added to the network, so shorter block times generally mean users see payments confirmed faster.

Another 98.9% voted to keep Zcash’s bitcoin-style halvings. Miners, the computers that help secure the network, are paid partly in newly created ZEC. A halving cuts that new-coin reward in half at fixed intervals. The alternative would have replaced Zcash’s large, scheduled reward cuts with a smoother issuance curve, gradually reducing the amount of new ZEC created over time.

The voting system itself is as unusual as the result.

Only ZEC held in Ironwood, Zcash’s newest private transaction pool, could vote. “Shielded” means the blockchain can verify that the coins exist and are spent correctly without publicly showing the wallet balance or transaction details.

That privacy carried over into the vote.

In a normal token vote, a wallet casting 500,000 votes can effectively announce to the world that it controls 500,000 tokens and which side it backed. Zcash’s system lets that economic weight count without publishing the holder’s balance or identity alongside the choice.

Ballots were encrypted and split into 16 separate pieces before being counted. Validators could add up the final result without reconstructing which holder cast which vote or how much ZEC that person controlled.

In other words, holders could use their actual economic stake to vote on Zcash's monetary policy and technical roadmap while keeping the size of that stake hidden.

Read More: Zcash seals $1.7 billion shielded pool as Ironwood upgrade activates

That is a major jump from Zcash's earlier coin holder polling. February's NU7 sentiment poll drew participation equal to just 7.25% of circulating ZEC and exposed sharp disagreements between coin holders and Zcash's Community Advisory Panel, or ZCAP.

The latest system was introduced this summer to replace the previous token-holder voting process and give shielded balances much stronger privacy guarantees.

Holders also voted 96.6% to wait until February 2031 before beginning to reissue ZEC collected through the Network Sustainability Mechanism, or NSM.

How this helps ZcashThe planned system removes funds from circulation, including at least 60% of transaction fees, and eventually recycles the ZEC through future block rewards. The mechanism does not change Zcash's maximum supply.

The result keeps the existing halving schedule intact while allowing those recycled fees to accumulate for several years before returning to miners.

Meanwhile, holders also showed little appetite for delaying the broader upgrade. About 99.3% voted to ship NU7 as soon as possible, dropping any feature not implemented by a Sept. 30 readiness deadline rather than waiting for every approved component to be finished.

Read More: Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness

The 25-second block proposal also fits into a wider effort to make private ZEC payments much faster.

CoinDesk reported in August that new Zcash software cut proof-generation times on mobile devices from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in some tests, while separate work around Zakura and Project Tachyon targets much higher private-transaction throughput.

The vote gives developers a much clearer map for NU7 after months of disagreement over its scope. It does not itself change the network, however, with the selected features still needing to be implemented, tested and included in the eventual upgrade.

Nearly 2.4 million ZEC nevertheless weighed in on those decisions. At the same time, the individual balances behind the votes remained hidden, turning one of crypto's oldest privacy systems into the machinery for deciding what the network builds next.

12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

16 hours ago

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Why it matters:

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

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Swiss crypto platform SwissBorg unexpectedly expanded its listings, adding support for Litecoin (LTC) and Zcash (ZEC). For the European market, where regulators have been steadily cracking down on privacy coins, the Zcash integration became the biggest surprise of the week. 

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According to the company, the decision was driven exclusively by a surge in customer searches, with users now able to instantly exchange both coins for 12 fiat currencies and more than 400 other tokens.

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SwissBorg announces the official listing of Litecoin (LTC) and Zcash (ZEC) with one-tap swaps for European users. Source: SwissBorg via X.comBehind the Swiss company's apparent boldness lies a pragmatic legal calculation and precise timing.

How Litecoin and Zcash expanded to Europe's regulated market despite a looming banAdding Zcash to a MiCA-regulated platform in September 2026 looks defiant, but does not violate the law. Unlike Monero, where anonymity is enabled by default, Zcash has a more flexible design. Its architecture separates transparent and shielded transactions.

SwissBorg, like other major players in the European market, including Coinbase, Kraken and Bitpanda, works strictly with transparent addresses. This allows it to comply with current financial monitoring requirements.

However, this legal gateway is temporary:

Hard deadline: On July 10, 2027, Article 79 of the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) takes effect.Consequences: From that date, licensed exchanges and custodians will be completely prohibited from servicing any assets with anonymization features, effectively closing off Zcash's access to Europe's regulated exchange sector.Noncustodial status: Holding Zcash in personal wallets and conducting P2P transactions will remain fully legal in the EU after 2027.Under these conditions, the asset has effectively forced its way into the European market: the listing coincided with Zcash's strongest resurgence in a decade. Against a backdrop of short liquidations, the resolution of longstanding issues with its issuance model and rumors surrounding spot Zcash ETFs, the coin rallied parabolically, gaining 45% in just one week and breaking through the psychological $1,000 mark.

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For an exchange, ignoring that influx of liquidity would mean voluntarily handing trading fees to competitors. Litecoin (LTC) joined the platform alongside Zcash. Its optional MWEB privacy protocol previously sparked regulatory controversy, but the underlying mechanics of "digital silver" gave the listing the necessary balance of stability.

Ultimately, despite the looming 2027 ban, Zcash and Litecoin secured recognition from a regulated European platform. SwissBorg gave traders exactly what they were looking for at the market's peak, but with a firm, unspoken reminder: this window of opportunity will close in less than a year.