Zcash (ZEC) trades at $676.64 as of press time, marking its highest valuation since January 2018. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency posted a 26% gain in the past 24 hours and a 1,486% surge over the past three months.
The token now ranks as the 18th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, at $11.2 billion, positioning it near Hyperliquid and above established networks, including Sui, Avalanche, and Litecoin.
Since Oct. 1, Zcash jumped from $74.30 to an intraday high of $750 on Nov. 7, representing a more than 10-fold price increase.
Jake Kennis, analyst at Nansen, explained the movement in a note:
“There is certainly speculation beyond the technology at this point, having increased by over 1,486% in just the last 3 months. The funding rate is extremely negative, and there have been many liquidations for those short recently.”
Privacy infrastructure meets market timing
According to Kennis, Zcash’s eight-year high is attributed to multiple converging factors. Privacy has transitioned from a feature to a perceived necessity in cryptocurrency markets, driving renewed ideological demand for private, self-sovereign transactions.
This manifests in the steady expansion of Zcash’s shielded pool, which enables fully encrypted transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography.
The technical architecture supporting this privacy layer has matured substantially. Zcash’s zero-knowledge proof system, the Zashi wallet that enables shielded transfers, and recent Solana integration have collectively improved usability and accessibility for users who previously found privacy coins difficult to adopt.
Zcash’s tokenomics mirror Bitcoin’s scarcity model while adding cryptographic privacy. The network operates on a fixed 21 million supply cap, utilizes proof-of-work consensus, and is facing an upcoming halving that will reduce new token issuance.
Combined with zk-SNARK-enabled privacy, these characteristics position Zcash as what Kennis describes as an “encrypted Bitcoin.”
Capital flows and attention return
The price surge has attracted renewed attention from crypto industry figures, including Arthur Hayes and Barry Silbert.
After years of underperformance relative to the broader cryptocurrency market, ZEC’s resurgence has drawn fresh capital flows from investors reassessing privacy-focused assets.
Derivatives markets reflect extreme positioning around the move. The negative funding rate Kennis cites indicates a crowded short position that faced liquidation pressure as prices climbed, potentially accelerating the upward momentum through forced buying.
The timing of Zcash’s breakout coincides with broader market discussions around transaction privacy and regulatory scrutiny of blockchain surveillance.
As governments and private entities expand blockchain analytics capabilities, demand for privacy-preserving transaction methods has grown among users seeking financial confidentiality.
Additionally, the Zashi wallet launch addressed a longstanding friction point in Zcash adoption. Previous wallet implementations made shielded transactions complex for average users, limiting the privacy features to technically sophisticated participants.
Zashi simplifies the process, potentially expanding the user base willing to conduct shielded transactions.
Solana integration extends Zcash’s reach into a high-throughput ecosystem with substantial liquidity and an active developer community.
This cross-chain functionality enables Zcash to leverage Solana’s user base while preserving its core privacy features through bridging mechanisms.
The shielded pool expansion Kennis references represents actual usage of Zcash’s privacy features rather than purely speculative trading.
When users move ZEC into the shielded pool, they opt into encrypted transactions where amounts and addresses remain hidden. Growth in this metric suggests organic demand for the privacy functionality itself.
The combination of ideological positioning around privacy, technical infrastructure improvements, Bitcoin-like supply dynamics, and attention from industry figures created conditions for the three-month rally that pushed ZEC past its multi-year resistance levels.