Winklevoss Asset Services filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 6 for the Winklevoss Zcash ETF, a spot fund that would directly hold privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) and list on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK.
The Block said the filing makes it the third issuer to apply for a U.S. spot Zcash ETF, following Grayscale and Bitwise. Grayscale’s product began trading in August.
0.25% annual fee, with Gemini as custodian
The filing says the fund would pay the sponsor a unified annual fee equal to 0.25% of the ZEC held by the trust. Net asset value would be calculated daily using a 4 p.m. New York pricing benchmark. The fund would not use leverage or derivatives.
Winklevoss Asset Services, the sponsor, is a Delaware limited liability company formed on Oct. 1. All ZEC held by the fund would be custodied by Gemini Trust Company, a New York-chartered affiliate of the sponsor.
The document also discloses that Winklevoss Capital Fund has indicated interest in purchasing up to $100 million of fund shares in the offering through an authorized participant.
The S-1 remains in preliminary form, and several fields have not yet been completed, including the pricing benchmark and the transfer agent.
Fund is not expected to take part in Zcash holder voting
The filing describes Zcash as using the zero-knowledge proof technology zk-SNARKs to conceal transaction amounts and the identities of senders and recipients, while still keeping transactions public and allowing selective disclosure when required for regulatory purposes.
The fund has signed with Cypherpunk, which will serve as a "Zcash ecosystem partner" and provide advisory services on holder voting and protocol technical development.
Still, the filing says participation in Zcash holder votes currently requires holding shielded ZEC in a self-custodied wallet, so the fund is not expected to participate in that process. As an example, the document says roughly 2.4 million ZEC took part in voting tied to the 2026 NU7 upgrade. Those votes are advisory in nature and are not binding on the network.