Zcash has climbed roughly 32% over the past week, reached about $1,595 on Sept. 19, and rose to No. 9 by market value, according to Unchained. While the most common explanation for the move is renewed interest in privacy coins, Helius co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz argued on the Sept. 21 episode of Unchained that privacy alone does not explain Zcash’s outperformance. In his view, the stronger case ties together privacy, store-of-value characteristics, scale, and quantum resistance. Mumtaz said a true store-of-value asset should minimize surprises, including regulatory surprises and questions around fungibility. He described privacy as one requirement inside a broader package rather than the sole driver. He also pointed to Zcash’s work on faster block times and a future upgrade aimed at full quantum resistance, noting that the network today is quantum-recoverable rather than quantum-proof. The article also highlighted a more concrete catalyst: Grayscale’s spot Zcash exchange-traded fund, ZCSH, listed on Aug. 25 and has drawn $233 million in inflows. At the same time, other privacy coins including Monero and Dash have also moved higher, suggesting a broader sector rotation. Mumtaz added that if privacy becomes common across chains, Zcash would need the fuller store-of-value thesis to keep its edge.

Grayscale has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to carry out a 3-for-1 forward share split for its Zcash ETF, trading under the ticker ZCSH. Under the plan, shareholders will receive two additional shares for every share they hold at the close of trading on Sept. 28. The asset manager said the move is expected to lower the fund’s per-share price while increasing the number of shares outstanding on a proportional basis, leaving the total value of an investor’s position unchanged. In its example, Grayscale said an investor holding 10 shares worth $300 each, or $3,000 in total, would own 30 shares worth $100 each after the split, with the total still at $3,000. The company said the split is intended to make the ETF more accessible after the underlying token rose about 2,800% over the past year. The filing comes as Zcash has drawn renewed market attention. Cointelegraph previously reported that ZEC rose about 20% in 24 hours after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said the firm had made an unspecified purchase of the token. Huang called Zcash a private complement to Bitcoin and voiced support for its developer fund. The Block also reported that ZEC climbed as high as $1,521 early Friday before easing slightly.

Grayscale has filed to carry out a 3-for-1 forward stock split for its Zcash exchange-traded fund, ZCSH, in a move aimed at lowering the per-share price without changing the value of investors’ holdings. Under the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, shareholders on record at the close of trading on Sept. 28 will receive two additional shares for each share they already own, with distribution set for after the market closes on Sept. 29. Split-adjusted trading is scheduled to begin before the open on Sept. 30 under the same ticker and CUSIP. The filing comes after strong demand for the fund. Since it began trading on Aug. 25, ZCSH has attracted more than $233 million in inflows, including a $46.6 million day this week and a single-day $112 million intake on Sept. 8. Net assets were about $890 million as of Sept. 17. Decrypt reported that Zcash has risen more than 2,800% over the last year, pushing up the ETF’s share price and making it harder for smaller investors to buy whole shares through traditional brokerage accounts. ZCSH is described as the world’s first spot ETF to hold Zcash’s token, ZEC, directly. The product was created through the conversion of Grayscale’s earlier Zcash Trust, which held roughly $313 million in ZEC when trading on NYSE Arca began.

Zcash ETF ZCSH, listed on NYSE Arca, said on Sept. 18 that it will carry out a 3-for-1 share split, with post-split trading set to begin before the market opens on Sept. 30. According to an 8-K exhibit filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, holders of record at the close on Sept. 28 will receive two additional shares for each share held, with distribution scheduled after the close on Sept. 29. The fund will continue trading under the ZCSH ticker on NYSE Arca, and its CUSIP will remain unchanged. The filing states that the split is a mechanical adjustment rather than an increase in assets. It changes the number of shares outstanding and lowers the per-share price on a proportional basis, but it does not change the total value of a shareholder’s investment. The document gives an example in which 10 shares at a hypothetical NAV of $300 each, worth $3,000 in total, become 30 shares at $100 each, still worth $3,000. The report also notes that the split does not alter the amount of ZEC held by the fund and should not be read as a signal about future price moves. Separately, though unrelated to the ETF, the Zcash community released the result of its NU7 upgrade poll on Sept. 14.

ZEC rose 18% in the past 24 hours to around $1,479, extending a move from roughly $485 a month ago and $51 a year ago. That puts the token up about 25x year over year, with market capitalization reaching $25 billion and ranking ninth across the crypto market, according to a TechFlowPost analysis. The article argues that three forces are shaping the move: Grayscale’s spot Zcash ETF, the NU7 community vote, and a derivatives market dominated by leverage. Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, trading under the ticker ZCSH, listed in the US on Aug. 25 and crossed $400 million in assets under management within two weeks. TechFlowPost says the bigger shift is not the size of the inflow itself, but the fact that traditional brokerage investors can now gain exposure to ZEC without handling private keys or using crypto exchanges. On the protocol side, the Sept. 14 NU7 vote kept the halving model, delayed NSM reissuance until February 2031, approved partial fee burning, and backed faster block production under Project Tachyon. In the short term, the article says leverage is the main price driver. CoinGlass data cited in the piece shows ZEC open interest at a record $3.55 billion as of Sept. 17, with futures volume at $14.45 billion versus $1.61 billion in spot volume. TechFlowPost’s conclusion is straightforward: short term, watch leverage; medium term, watch the narrative; long term, watch ETF inflows and on-chain privacy usage.

Zcash’s token, ZEC, rose 18% over the past 24 hours to about $1,479, extending a move that took it from roughly $485 a month ago and $51 a year ago to a market capitalization of $25 billion and the No. 9 spot in the broader crypto market. According to MarsBit, the rally is being shaped by three forces that do not carry the same weight across time horizons. The first is structural: Grayscale’s spot Zcash ETF, trading under the ticker ZCSH, listed in the U.S. on Aug. 25 and gathered more than $400 million in assets under management within two weeks. MarsBit argues that the product matters less for the size of immediate inflows than for widening access, allowing traditional investors to gain exposure through brokerage accounts without handling private keys or using crypto exchanges. The second is narrative reinforcement. Results released on Sept. 14 from the NU7 community vote showed support for keeping Bitcoin-style halvings, delaying NSM reissuance until February 2031, burning part of transaction fees through NSM, and pushing forward faster block production under Project Tachyon. The third, and in MarsBit’s view the main short-term driver, is leverage: CoinGlass data as of Sept. 17 showed $3.55 billion in open interest, $14.45 billion in 24-hour futures volume, a roughly 9:1 derivatives-to-spot volume ratio, and liquidation patterns led by shorts.

ChainFeeds’ Sept. 18 research roundup pulled together five separate market and policy narratives that are shaping crypto discussion this week. One report argued that Aptos has seen a sharp contraction in validator count and geographic distribution, with lower staking rewards, a steep drop in APT’s price, and higher operating requirements squeezing smaller operators. Another focused on Ethena, saying a governance-approved fee switch would begin directing protocol revenue toward ENA buybacks once USDe’s 14-day average supply rises above $7.5 billion, with stock perpetuals, improving funding rates, TRON deployment, CEX collateral integrations, and Ethena Pay cited as possible growth drivers. The roundup also highlighted Arc’s mainnet debut as a fresh battleground for Meme traders. According to block explorer data cited by PANews, daily transactions topped 1.16 million on Sept. 16, while address growth and USDC inflows accelerated as traders rushed to secure early positions. A separate piece examined ZEC’s rally, noting that its market capitalization had climbed to about $23.2 billion by Sept. 17, pushing it into the global top 10 as U.S.-listed exchange-traded products, options trading, and a revived “private Bitcoin” narrative drew attention. The final report turned to Washington, where the U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15, leaving the SEC and CFTC in a more prominent position as they move ahead with interim crypto rulemaking and interpretive guidance.

Crypto prices climbed through the U.S. session on Monday as traders positioned for two scheduled federal events set to conclude within 48 hours: a Senate cloture vote tied to H.R. 3633 on Tuesday afternoon and a Federal Reserve decision on Wednesday. XRP led major tokens with a 7.7% gain to $1.46, while Bitcoin rose 2.3% to $79,164 and Ether added 1.3% to $2,541.82. Polymarket priced the CLARITY Act at a 29.5% chance of becoming law in 2026, up from 18% on Friday, and put the odds of a 25-basis-point rate hike on Wednesday at 85.5%. Senators Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott released what they described as the final bill text on Monday, saying it included 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats, new ethics language, a role for state attorneys general, Treasury authority to stop deposit flight tied to payment stablecoins, and edits to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Outside crypto, stocks and gold traded lower, oil gave back much of an overnight spike, and U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted another day of outflows while spot Ether ETFs brought in fresh demand.