zcash

According to CryptoSlate, the voting in the Zcash community regarding the NU7 network upgrade will close on September 14. The core issue is to replace the periodic halving with a smooth issuance curve, and another issue is whether to shorten the block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.This proposal does not change the total supply cap of ZEC, only adjusts the pace of new coin release; the vote is advisory in nature, and even if passed, development and deployment still need to be completed. ZEC recently reached a new high since 2018, currently priced at $1,093.21, ranking 10th by market capitalization.

Zach Pandl, the research director at Grayscale, pointed out that Zcash, as a Bitcoin-like digital currency with privacy features, currently has lucrative mining profits. Although Bitcoin network miners earn about $35 million daily, far exceeding Zcash's approximately $2 million, the daily revenue per mining machine for Zcash is about twice that of Bitcoin, with revenue per megawatt-hour approximately four times that of Bitcoin, even surpassing some AI/high-performance computing cloud services.Driven by the strong performance of token prices, Zcash's overall mining activity has increased more than 2.5 times this year, forming a virtuous cycle of "price increase --- mining increase --- network security enhancement --- supporting price." Pandl believes that at the current valuation, Zcash mining remains attractive and continues to strengthen its network security.

Pine Analytics released the Zcash Q3 2026 report. Ironwood was activated on July 28 at block 3,428,143, and within five weeks, holders migrated 87% of their Orchard balance, with the new pool holding 3.84M ZEC as of August 31. The shielded supply increased by 9.9% to 4.86M ZEC, with the shielded ratio rebounding from 26.3% to 28.7%, recovering 440K from the 745K unshielded ZEC in June.The price of ZEC rose from $407 on June 30 to $836 on August 31, an increase of 106%. Grayscale ZCSH converted to a spot ETF, with assets growing from $155 million to $346 million. Mining difficulty rose by 35%, reaching an all-time high, with two corporate miners committing approximately $65 million in hash power. NU7 has no mainnet height yet, and holders will vote until September 14 to decide whether to launch before September 30 with a 25-second block time and smooth issuance; there are still 470K ZEC remaining in Orchard.

Bitfinex Alpha report shows that Bitcoin has been consolidating in the range of $77,100 to $81,300 over the past 20 trading days, with the current price close to the key support level at the lower end of the range. If it breaks above $81,300, the volume vacuum above may drive the price quickly up to $86,500. The options market has shifted protection to contracts expiring on September 18 ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.The report also points out that while Bitcoin's volatility has decreased, altcoins are performing actively, with all 29 major cryptocurrencies rising last week, Polkadot up 43%, and Zcash up 42%. The open interest in altcoin perpetual contracts has surpassed Bitcoin for the first time this week, a situation that historically often accompanies market correction risks.

According to CoinDesk, Grayscale's Zcash Spot ETF (ZCSH) has seen its assets under management exceed $500 million within two weeks of its launch, currently holding over 550,000 ZEC, accounting for about 3% of its total circulating supply of 16.9 million.Since its listing on August 25, the fund has attracted over $70 million in inflows and received an additional $100 million investment from DCG International Investments. Driven by this, ZEC briefly surpassed $1,180 during the day, with an increase of over 4%, and a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $1 billion, raising its market capitalization to the tenth position in the cryptocurrency rankings.

Grayscale announced on platform X that its launched the world's first Zcash spot ETF fund ZCSH is now open for options trading.

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun (@satofishi) pointed out that the current rise of Zcash is essentially a narrative-driven speculative behavior, rather than being supported by actual value. He listed several core issues: in terms of unfair distribution, 20% of the block rewards in the first four years were allocated as "founder's rewards" to founders, employees, advisors, and early investors, totaling 2.1 million ZEC, which accounts for 10% of the total supply cap. This was followed by a similar percentage taken under the name of a "development fund"; regarding privacy mechanisms, the privacy feature is optional rather than a default setting, and most tokens circulate in transparent addresses for a long time, criticized as a "marketing gimmick."In terms of governance, the Electric Coin Company (ECC) has long-standing management conflicts with the foundation, and in January 2026, the ECC team collectively left, claiming they were expelled. In terms of security, in May 2026, it was disclosed that the Orchard privacy pool had a serious vulnerability for four years, theoretically allowing the forgery of ZEC without on-chain traces. In July, the old pool was urgently closed and forced migration occurred, which was seen as a remedial action rather than a positive development. Wang Chun believes that Zcash being listed alongside Solana and Hyperliquid in market capitalization does not represent that it has the same actual application value; the current price reflects more of a "narrative short squeeze" rather than the network's fundamentals.

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun (@satofishi) stated that six years ago, he banned all members of the Zcash team due to their continuous confusion between EST and EDT time zones, believing that the team lacked basic principles of understanding. He mentioned that this decision remains one of his most correct choices to this day.Wang Chun cited the BlockFi incident as an analogy—BlockFi mistakenly sent 701.4 BTC instead of the 701.4 USD that should have been sent to users, pointing out that "those who can't even distinguish between EDT and EST are likely to confuse BTC and USD."

The price of Zcash (ZEC) has risen to its highest level since 2016, with a market capitalization surpassing $20 billion. According to CoinGecko data, ZEC once reached $1,249.28 before falling back to around $1,195, having increased approximately 45% over the past week and 138% over the past 30 days. However, the current price is still below the historical high of $3,191.93 set on October 28, 2016.This round of increases is primarily driven by Grayscale converting its Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The product code is ZCSH, which began trading on NYSE ARCA on August 25, allowing investors to gain exposure to ZEC through brokerage accounts. As of last Friday's close, the ETF reported $83.77, with assets under management reaching $463.2 million. Zcash allows users to choose between public transactions and "shielded" transactions, the latter utilizing zero-knowledge proofs to verify payments without disclosing the sender, receiver, or transaction amount.Grayscale's research director Zach Pandl stated in an analysis on August 31 that this could become a "must-have" feature for privacy-focused users. Pandl pointed out that artificial intelligence might increase the demand for financial privacy by making it easier to associate public blockchain transactions with user identities.

Since its listing on the NYSE Arca on August 25, the Grayscale Zcash ETF (ZCSH) has seen a cumulative net inflow of approximately $34.4 million. Launched by Grayscale, ZCSH is the first exchange-traded product to provide spot exposure to ZEC.According to Gate market data, ZEC has surpassed $1000 today, reaching a historic high, with ZEC increasing by approximately 31% since the listing of the Zcash ETF.

The Zcash full node client team, Zakura, has released Zakura Common, a set of cryptographic and protocol libraries for the Zcash ecosystem. Official benchmarks show that the proof generation speed on mobile has increased by over 14 times (over 5 times on desktop), Sinsemilla hash speed has increased by over 21 times, decryption trial speed has increased by over 1.5 times, and zk-SNARK verification speed has increased by 4 to 8 times; in many cases, the waiting time for wallet transaction creation can be reduced from over 3 seconds to under 200 milliseconds.This upgrade does not require a network upgrade and has been open-sourced under the MIT/Apache 2.0 dual license. Zakura 1.3.0 will switch to this technology stack.

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has increased approximately 19 times in the past year, but its market capitalization is still less than 1% of Bitcoin. Digital asset management company Grayscale states that financial privacy, cybersecurity development, and cross-chain connectivity capabilities may drive Zcash to further expand its market share. As of today, Bitcoin's market capitalization is $1.56 trillion, while Zcash's market capitalization is $13.74 billion, about 0.88% of Bitcoin's, with Bitcoin's market cap being approximately 114 times that of Zcash.Grayscale estimates that if ZEC reaches 2%, 5%, and 10% of Bitcoin's market capitalization, the corresponding prices would be $1,622, $4,054, and $8,109, respectively; these scenarios are not price predictions. Grayscale's Zcash ETF began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH, moving from OTCQX to NYSE Arca, providing investors with spot ZEC exposure without the need to directly purchase tokens or manage wallets and private keys. Zcash uses proof-of-work and has a fixed supply of 21 million coins, supporting the concealment of transaction details through zero-knowledge proofs. Its intents technology can coordinate cross-chain transactions based on user goals, such as exchanging other digital assets for ZEC.

Grayscale Research stated that Zcash (ZEC), as a decentralized digital currency with privacy features similar to Bitcoin, is expected to pose a real challenge to Bitcoin's network effects.Grayscale believes that Zcash has advantages such as financial privacy not available with Bitcoin, ongoing development to address network security risks like quantum computing, and cross-chain connectivity through "intention" technology. These features may become increasingly important in the AI-driven surveillance era.Grayscale pointed out that ZEC has increased approximately 19 times over the past year, but its current market capitalization is still less than 1% of Bitcoin's. The institution believes this indicates that there is still competitive space in the currency-like crypto asset sector, and Zcash may continue to expand its market share. However, Grayscale also emphasizes that investing in Zcash is high-risk, and even if it successfully challenges Bitcoin, it is unlikely to rise in a straight line.

Zcash (ZEC) fell 7.6% to $787 on Wednesday, giving back a 56% gain from the previous week that had pushed the price to an eight-year high of around $880. This pullback coincided with Grayscale's Zcash Trust converting to a spot ETF and listing on the NYSE Arca on Tuesday (ticker ZCSH), with the trust holding approximately 393,000 ZEC, valued at over $260 million.In the days leading up to the ETF listing, ZEC surged from below $600 to above $880, reaching its highest level since 2018, as the market compared it to Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap and proof-of-work mechanism, promoting its "next Bitcoin" narrative. During this period, the open interest in ZEC perpetual contracts nearly doubled to $1.8 billion, with leveraged funds potentially accelerating both the upward and downward movements.In the overall market, Bitcoin fell 2% to $78,900, with most major cryptocurrencies closing lower, marking a pause in the week-long crypto rebound.

According to BBX data, yesterday global digital asset funds, compliant financial infrastructure, and institutional merger and acquisition transactions disclosed the latest official ledgers and capital flows. The core dynamics are as follows:Grayscale Zcash spot ETF officially listed on the NYSE Arca: Grayscale's Grayscale Zcash Trust has officially completed its conversion and is now trading as a spot ETF on the New York Stock Exchange Arca, with the stock code "ZCSH". A Grayscale spokesperson stated that the management fee for this ETF is 2.5%, and all income generated will be reinvested into the Zcash ecosystem to promote and enhance the infrastructure and broader development of this privacy network.tZERO and Sui reach strategic cooperation to connect compliant securities infrastructure in the US stock market: Leading blockchain financial infrastructure platform tZERO announced a strategic partnership with the public chain Sui. tZERO will provide full-process support for regulated digital asset securities trading within the Sui ecosystem, covering asset issuance, transfer agent, asset custody, secondary matching transactions, compliance review, and clearing and settlement, significantly expanding Sui's ability to access US domestic financial infrastructure that meets institutional standards.Crypto custodian Copper receives a $200 million potential acquisition offer, valuation down over 90% from peak: The UK-based veteran crypto custodian Copper, once valued at $2.5 billion, has recently attracted interest from new potential buyers, but the acquisition offers received so far are only about $200 million. This valuation not only has significantly decreased but is also far below the $500 million acquisition intention proposed by Cantor Fitzgerald a few months ago, reflecting the valuation pressure in the institutional custody sector amid the transition between bull and bear markets and regulatory reshuffling.RockawayX plans to raise $150 million for a new liquidity fund: Digital asset investment firm RockawayX, which manages approximately $2 billion in assets, announced that it is currently seeking to raise $150 million for its new "Liquidity Opportunity Fund." Previously, RockawayX successfully completed the full acquisition of the crypto hedge fund Relayer Capital, continuously expanding its layout in the secondary market and liquidity strategies.

According to Decrypt, Grayscale's Zcash spot ETF has officially been listed on the NYSE Arca, with the stock ticker ZCSH, becoming the world's first exchange-traded product providing exposure to Zcash (ZEC).The product is a successor to the Grayscale Zcash Trust, which was established in October 2017 as a private placement. Grayscale stated that ZCSH aims to meet the demand from investors for exposure to cryptocurrency assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum through traditional brokerage accounts.Steve Vanourny, head of Grayscale's index business, stated that Zcash has nearly a decade of network history, a fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, and a PoW mechanism, while also offering optional privacy features that Bitcoin does not have. The company positions ZCSH as a high-risk satellite position in a digital asset portfolio. It is worth noting that at the time of ZCSH's listing, the serious privacy system vulnerabilities previously disclosed by Zcash are still a concern in the market.In May of this year, researchers discovered exploitable vulnerabilities in the Zcash Orchard privacy pool, which theoretically could allow attackers to forge ZEC. Zcash subsequently deployed an emergency patch in June and activated the Ironwood upgrade in July to replace the vulnerable Orchard privacy pool and limit the potential forged ZEC from entering circulation through new supply accounting rules. Grayscale stated that it will focus on the adoption of the Ironwood upgrade, network security, exchange support, and regulatory policies for privacy assets in the future.

According to Gate data, ZEC reached an approximately 8-year high today, hitting a peak price of $888, the highest since 2018, with a weekly increase of over 70%, and is currently maintaining a high position around $844.The Zcash community will conduct a token holder vote starting on the 24th for about 18 days to determine the scope of the upcoming NU7 upgrade. The minimum voting participation threshold is 1 million ZEC. Voting rights are based on the spendable, shielded ZEC held in the Ironwood pool at the time of the snapshot (expected on the 24th at 19:00 UTC, with a mainnet block height of approximately 3,459,350). Voting will open on August 25 and end on September 14 at 19:00 UTC, conducted privately through supporting wallets, with results only published as aggregated data.

According to The Block, Grayscale submitted its fifth amendment application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 21, further advancing its plans for the listing of the Zcash ETF. The latest application indicates that the product will officially be renamed "The Zcash ETF," with an annual management fee set at 2.5%, and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange Arca under the code "ZCH," with Coinbase Custody Trust Company as the custodian and BNY Mellon as the transfer agent.This ETF will be converted from Grayscale's existing Zcash trust, which has been operating since 2017 and currently has assets under management exceeding $260 million. In the previous fourth amendment application, a subsidiary of Grayscale's parent company, Digital Currency Group, had negotiated to inject approximately 200,000 ZEC into the fund.

The Grayscale Zcash research report points out that as AI development brings new means of financial monitoring, Zcash's privacy features may become a necessary function in the AI era. Zcash achieves shielded transactions through zero-knowledge proofs, hiding the sender, receiver, and amount, possessing cash-like privacy attributes. Currently, shielded transactions account for about 90% of the transaction volume, with approximately 4.2 million ZEC shielded (accounting for 25% of the circulating supply).Grayscale notes that Zcash has a market capitalization of about $8 billion, which only accounts for 0.6% of its category "currency-type crypto assets" (total market capitalization of $1.4 trillion). If this category's share reaches 5%, the value of ZEC would be nine times its current value. The report believes that the market's current valuation of Zcash reflects the assumption that "privacy will remain marginalized," and if investors ultimately believe that privacy should receive a moderate premium, the current valuation may be underestimated. In terms of risks, the report mentions long-term risks such as regulation and quantum computing, but believes that Zcash's shielding technology and selective disclosure tools provide a pathway for compliance.