The fund, which could be listed on NYSE Arca, would the first ETF tied to a privacy coin, following several other listings from Grayscale and asset managers. Grayscale is aiming to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot exchange-traded fund in a move that could mark one of the first investment vehicles linked to a privacy coin. In a Wednesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Grayscale submitted a Form S-3 registration statement, signaling its intention to convert its fund tied to Zcash (ZEC) into a spot ETF. The move followed Grayscale’s launch of other spot ETFs linked to cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE), and XRP (XRP). The simplified form with the regulator could allow Grayscale to list the Zcash ETF on the NYSE Arca. According to data from Nansen, the price of ZEC increased by more than 50% in the past 30 days and by 1,050% in the past 12 months, reaching $519.62 at the time of publication. Read more
Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas says Zcash could dilute political and cultural support for Bitcoin, as critics accuse the privacy coin of manufactured hype. Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas has warned that Zcash may adversely impact Bitcoin at this crucial moment. In a recent post on X, Balchunas said Zcash (ZEC) has “third-party candidate vibes, like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein,” arguing that pushing a separate privacy coin risks “splitting the vote” when Bitcoin (BTC) needs unified political and cultural support. Balchunas’s comment comes as the Bitcoin vs Zcash debate intensifies. Arman Meguerian, founder and CEO of Timestamp, dismissed the idea that BTC supporters are pivoting to Zcash. “I don't know a single Bitcoin maxi that thinks about Zcash at all,” he wrote on X. Read more
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are betting on privacy protocols gaining major traction as AI continues to grow at an exponential rate. The year 2025 will go down as the year of digital asset treasury companies. Michael Saylor’s Strategy and Tom Lee’s Bitmine have forged ahead with Bitcoin and Ethereum-based strategies, while a handful of alternative DATs have grabbed headlines. Zcash (ZEC), the privacy protocol born out of a hard fork of the Bitcoin codebase in 2016, has been one of the big winners in 2025. Prominent industry advocates have been touting the importance of privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies, and Zcash has been the outright winner in terms of percentage price gains. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before the ecosystem welcomed a Zcash DAT, and the Winklevoss twins beat competitors to the mark. Read more
Individuals from both communities sparred over privacy, centralization, and market manipulation as ZEC continues to dominate the narrative. The debate between the Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC) communities intensified on Sunday as the price of Zcash recovered to over $700, after falling to a low of $598 on Saturday. “The ‘Bitcoin only, everything else is a scam’ crowd is going to get really twisted trying to figure out what to say about Zcash,” the CEO of investment firm Bitwise, Hunter Horsley, said in an X post, which ignited a firestorm of responses. “No, we’re pretty comfortable calling this obviously coordinated pump and dump of a VC coin a scam,” Bit Paine said in response, referencing Zcash’s 1,500% rally since October. Read more
The crypto industry has taken a sharp turn back towards privacy — and it can now exist side by side with regulatory compliance. After years touting the amazing transparency of blockchains, the crypto community has started to realize that privacy is actually essential for many traders, businesses and individuals. Until now, balancing the right to privacy with the need to avoid jail time on money laundering charges has proven a difficult task, as the developers of Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet have discovered. But 2026 is the year that pragmatic privacy is poised to take off, with a slew of new projects tackling compliant forms of privacy for institutions and surging interest in existing privacy coins like Zcash cheered on by Solana influencer Mert Mumtaz. Read more
The biotech firm is shifting to a crypto-focused strategy, backed by Winklevoss Capital, and investing $50 million in the Zcash protocol's native token. Shares of Leap Therapeutics (Nasdaq: LPTX) surged more than 170% in early trading on Wednesday after the company announced a shift to a crypto treasury strategy. The company announced its rebranding as Cypherpunk Technologies (Nasdaq: CYPH) and adoption of a digital asset treasury strategy focused on Zcash (ZEC), the native token of the Zcash protocol. The biotech company used $50 million from a $58.88 million private placement led by Winklevoss Capital to purchase 203,775 Zcash (ZEC) at an average price of $245.37 per token, marking a move away from biotechnology and into the crypto sector. Read more
ZEC has reached its most overbought reading on record, increasing the risk of a sharp 60% or more correction in the coming weeks. Key takeaways: ZEC is extremely overbought on the charts, risking a correction in the coming weeks. Zcash can still rally toward $900–$1,000 if the parabolic advance holds. Read more