Zcash jumps 48% to over $800 as Grayscale spot ETF push adds to ‘next bitcoin’ buzz

coindesk.com 1 h

Altcoins

Zcash surged past $800 for the first time since 2018 on Saturday, as “next bitcoin” chatter, billions in futures volume and Grayscale’s spot ETF push fueled a 38% rally.

The privacy-centric token was built on Bitcoin's design and inherited its 21 million supply cap, proof-of-work mining and halving schedule, with shielded transactions layered on top. CoinDesk Research examined the technical case for it in several reports this year, covering the Tachyon upgrade and the network's approach to quantum readiness.

Saturday’s move took it past the January 2018 peak near $800, which had stood as the token's high water mark for eight years, and past the $750 it reached last November. It traded as low as $589 and as high as $851 in a 24-hour period, a swing of 45%.

Crypto fund DCG sits behind several of the developments surrounding Zcash. Grayscale, which it owns, filed its fourth amendment on Aug. 18 to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot exchange-traded fund on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH.

The amendment keeps the conversion process moving but does not mean the ETF has been approved, with the filing still subject to SEC review.

The filing also disclosed that DCG International Investments, another subsidiary, is in non-binding talks to acquire roughly 200,000 ZEC through the trust, worth about $163 million at Saturday's price.

Meanwhile, Zcash futures volume reached roughly $4.55 billion on Friday against about $553 million of spot trading, with open interest near $1.35 billion. Volume over the past 24 hours stands at $2.24 billion, CoinDesk Data shows, equivalent to about 16% of Zcash's market value.

Leveraged buying accelerates a move up and makes any reversal sharper, and Zcash has already shown this year how fast it can go the other way. The token sold off hard in June after a vulnerability was found in its Orchard shielded pool, the part of the network that holds private transactions.

Zcash now sits 12th by market value at $13.87 billion, ahead of every other privacy-focused token.