Privacy Coins

Zcash

2026-09-11 14:22:56

Grayscale research head says Zcash mining remains attractive as returns outpace Bitcoin

Zcash mining is still compelling at current valuations, according to Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl, who compared the privacy-focused Bitcoin-like network with Bitcoin on miner economics. While Bitcoin miners collectively earn about $35 million in daily rewards, far more than Zcash’s roughly $2 million, Pandl said Zcash delivers stronger returns at the machine and power-usage level. He wrote that daily revenue per Zcash mining rig is about 2x that of a Bitcoin rig, and revenue per megawatt-hour is about 4x higher than Bitcoin’s. He added that the figure is even above some AI and high-performance computing cloud services. Pandl also said Zcash network mining activity has risen by more than 2.5x this year, driven by strong token price performance. In his view, that has created a loop of rising prices, increased mining, stronger network security, and price support.

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ZEC

2026-09-10 10:07:42

ZEC’s return to the top 10 revives old fights over payouts, privacy design and a past bug

ZEC climbed from about $486 in mid-August to as high as $1,200 in less than a month, a gain of more than 150% that pushed the token back into the top 10 by market capitalization. The rally quickly brought long-running disputes around Zcash back into view. Critics pointed again to the 20% slice of block rewards that was first distributed as a founders reward and later extended through a development fund, arguing that the structure never really disappeared. They also revisited a design issue that has followed Zcash for years: privacy exists, but shielded transactions are optional rather than mandatory, and some wallets and exchanges still only support transparent addresses. Governance tensions also resurfaced after the January 2026 mass departure of the Electric Coin Company team, followed by an agreement two months later to wind down ECC and transfer technical assets to a newly formed team. On the security front, the Orchard circuit flaw disclosed on May 29 raised a deeper question about whether anyone can prove the 21 million supply cap was never breached over the previous four years. Bulls are focusing on regulatory relief, ETF access and valuation upside, while bears are questioning whether the project’s structure deserves that premium at all.

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Zcash

2026-09-10 09:03:25

ZEC jumps more than 43% in seven days as Grayscale’s ZCSH tops $500 million in two weeks

Zcash outperformed the broader crypto market over the past week, rising more than 43% even as Bitcoin briefly fell to $77,666 before recovering toward $79,000 in Asian trading. The article attributes the move to Grayscale’s spot Zcash exchange-traded product, The Zcash ETF, trading under the ticker ZCSH, which listed on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25 and crossed $500 million in assets under management within two weeks. According to the report, more than $70 million came from net new subscriptions, while about $100 million came from an in-kind subscription by a Digital Currency Group investment entity that contributed 85,705 ZEC for fund shares. The same day the fund’s assets hit a record, exchange-listed options on ZCSH also began trading. The report says the product now holds more than 550,000 ZEC, locking up about 3% of circulating supply. It also points to Zcash’s capped 21 million supply, futures open interest climbing to $2.8 billion, and shielded pool balances rising above 4.86 million ZEC as factors behind the price action, while warning that RSI above 80 and any renewed Bitcoin weakness could raise the risk of a pullback.

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Zcash

2026-09-10 03:15:03

Zcash jumps more than 43% in a week as Grayscale’s ZCSH ETF tops $500 million and locks up roughly 3% of circulating ZEC

Zcash outperformed the broader crypto market over the past seven days, rising more than 43% even as Bitcoin briefly fell to $77,666 before recovering toward $79,000 during Asian trading hours. The report attributes the move primarily to Grayscale’s spot exchange-traded product, The Zcash ETF (ZCSH), which is listed on NYSE Arca and has now surpassed $500 million in assets under management. According to data cited from Bloomberg, the fund drew more than $70 million in net new subscriptions within two weeks of listing and also completed an in-kind token subscription worth about $100 million from an investment entity under Digital Currency Group. Total holdings have climbed above 550,000 ZEC, equal to about 3% of the network’s circulating supply. The article also points to supply-side pressure from Zcash’s 21 million hard cap, a rapid rise in derivatives activity with futures open interest reaching $2.8 billion, and on-chain data showing more than 4.86 million ZEC held in shielded pools. At the same time, it flags short-term risks including an RSI reading above 80, the sustainability of ETF inflows, and the possibility of broader downside if Bitcoin loses support near $78,000.

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Zcash

2026-09-10 03:26:56

Wang Chun challenges the Zcash rally as privacy narrative collides with old questions

Zcash surged back into the spotlight after ZEC climbed above $1,000 intraday on Sept. 4, 2026 and reached about $1,256.92 on Sept. 7, before closing that day around $1,146.61. The move came with heavy short liquidations, with CoinDesk reporting roughly $36.6 million in leveraged positions wiped out over 24 hours, including about $34.5 million in shorts. At the same time, a group of well-known backers — including Barry Silbert, the Winklevoss twins, Arthur Hayes, Multicoin Capital and Naval Ravikant — had spent the past year publicly arguing that financial privacy is becoming more valuable as public ledgers and AI-driven data analysis expand. That bullish case now faces a direct challenge from F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun, who said on Sept. 8 that Zcash’s rise was driven mainly by "narrative buying" rather than usage that matches its market standing. His criticism focused on Zcash’s early token distribution, developer funding structure, governance conflict and the Orchard vulnerability. The dispute is not simply about price. It is about whether privacy demand can become durable usage, and whether supply integrity and governance are strong enough to support a long-term monetary premium.

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ZEC

2026-09-10 02:27:15

ZEC’s Rally Looks More Like a Narrative Repricing Than a Full Revaluation of Zcash

A MarsBit opinion piece by Daii argues that ZEC’s latest surge is better understood as a sharp narrative repricing than a completed revaluation of Zcash’s underlying network value. The article says Zcash still has one of crypto’s clearest labels — a long-running proof-of-work asset with a capped supply, zero-knowledge cryptography and a privacy-coin identity — but a stronger label does not automatically mean a stronger product. Using the OKX price range cited in the piece, ZEC rose from $251.39 to a high of $1,256.92, roughly a 5x move or about 400%. The author says that kind of move cannot be dismissed as simple speculation, yet price action alone does not prove adoption, sustainable fee generation or a widely used privacy network. The piece points to unresolved questions around shielded usage, anonymity-set quality, development-fund dilution, governance accountability and security risk disclosure. It also separates reported concerns over an Orchard shielded pool flaw from any claim that the flaw was actually exploited on-chain, saying public evidence is still insufficient to confirm exploitation or fully rule it out. On market structure, the article adds that a reported $45.11 million ZEC short built with 3x leverage by Garrett Jin may help explain the speed of the rally through squeeze dynamics, but not Zcash’s long-term value. Its conclusion is direct: ZEC’s narrative asset may be getting repriced, while Zcash’s network value still has more to prove.

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ZEC

2026-09-09 08:51:10

ZEC Enters the Top 10 as Grayscale’s Long Game Meets Pushback From Chinese Crypto Veterans

Zcash’s native token, ZEC, has become one of the strongest performers in crypto, rising 130.9% over the past 30 days and 2252.0% over the past year, according to CoinGecko data cited in the source article. Its market capitalization has climbed to nearly $20 billion, overtaking DOGE and pushing ZEC into the global top 10 by market value. As of Sept. 9, ZEC accounted for more than 66.7% of the privacy-coin sector’s total market capitalization, while Glassnode said privacy is the only major crypto sector still above its October 2025 peak, up 213% from that level. The rally has also spilled into related assets such as ZCAT, and liquidations in ZEC markets have been led by short positions, including a large short on Hyperliquid linked to Garrett Jin. The move has split opinion. Overseas bulls including Balaji, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, Multicoin partner Tushar Jain, and crypto commentator Ansem have publicly backed ZEC, with Balaji calling for a $100,000 target. In contrast, Chinese-speaking market veterans and KOLs such as Wang Chun, Cobo CEO Shenyu, Jademont Zheng, Lanhu, and 0xTodd have questioned whether the rally reflects strong fundamentals. Their critiques cover Zcash’s founder rewards, governance disputes, the optional nature of privacy addresses, historical security concerns, and market structure. The article also traces Digital Currency Group and Grayscale’s involvement in Zcash from 2016 through mining, trust products, and the recent conversion of ZCSH into what the source describes as the first U.S. ETF directly tracking a privacy coin.

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privacy coins

2026-09-09 02:48:10

0xTodd argues privacy coin moves are driven less by tech than by listings and positioning

MarsBit published a market commentary by 0xTodd on Sept. 9 arguing that the price action of privacy coins is shaped far more by exchange access and capital positioning than by the underlying privacy technology. Looking back on nine years in crypto, the author said early debates over Dash’s mixing design, Monero’s ring signatures, and ZCash’s zero-knowledge proofs now seem secondary when compared with market structure. The piece compares Monero, ZCash and Dash. It says XMR did not move with ZEC because Monero was delisted by Binance and Coinbase, limiting where traders can sell if the asset is pushed higher. It then contrasts ZEC with DASH, claiming that Digital Currency Group holds ZEC but not DASH, and noting that ZEC ranks among Grayscale’s larger positions. On why XMR was removed, the author points to one factor tied to product design: Monero enforces privacy by default, while ZEC supports both transparent and private balances. The article also says Binance and Coinbase only allow withdrawals to transparent addresses. 0xTodd concludes that even if XMR or DASH rally in the future, that would not prove ring signatures or coin-mixing defeated zero-knowledge proofs; in the author’s view, it would only show that a new large operator replaced an old one.

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