Mert Mumtaz dropped a truth bomb most of crypto still doesn't get:
$ZEC shipped ZK proofs in production before anyone else. A decade ago.
Every ZK rollup, ZK bridge, ZK privacy play you see today? Traces back to Zcash. They didn't just talk about it. They built it. Shipped it. And kept building.
Some of the OG team is still there. Still grinding. Mert called them the best cryptographers on Earth in that field. Rare to see world-class talent locked in on one problem for 10+ years.
Yeah, smart teams don't guarantee price action. Tech is open source, anyone can fork. Algorand had a Turing Award winner. Filecoin had top researchers. Big brains ≠ big returns.
$ZEC been live since 2016. Price didn't reflect the talent for most of that time.
But something shifted.
Privacy narrative finally caught up. New ATH in 2026. WSJ, Forbes, Fast Company all covering $ZEC same week. Multicoin publicly loading bags. And the ZK tech Zcash pioneered? It's now the foundation for an entire category.
10 years of world-class cryptographers pulling in one direction.
Market ignored it.
Not anymore.
$ZEC shipped ZK proofs in production before anyone else. A decade ago.
Every ZK rollup, ZK bridge, ZK privacy play you see today? Traces back to Zcash. They didn't just talk about it. They built it. Shipped it. And kept building.
Some of the OG team is still there. Still grinding. Mert called them the best cryptographers on Earth in that field. Rare to see world-class talent locked in on one problem for 10+ years.
Yeah, smart teams don't guarantee price action. Tech is open source, anyone can fork. Algorand had a Turing Award winner. Filecoin had top researchers. Big brains ≠ big returns.
$ZEC been live since 2016. Price didn't reflect the talent for most of that time.
But something shifted.
Privacy narrative finally caught up. New ATH in 2026. WSJ, Forbes, Fast Company all covering $ZEC same week. Multicoin publicly loading bags. And the ZK tech Zcash pioneered? It's now the foundation for an entire category.
10 years of world-class cryptographers pulling in one direction.
Market ignored it.
Not anymore.
