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Highlights
- Zcash (ZEC) fell to about $814 after touching $880, its highest level since 2018.
- Stocks may begin trading on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker ZCSH on August 25 or thereabouts, which would make it the first U.S. ETF to track a privacy coin.
- Leverage surged with this move, as open interest in perpetual ZEC futures contracts roughly doubled to reach $1.8 billion.
Pullback after a strong jump
On Monday, Zcash fell from its eight-year high after giving back part of the surge seen by the privacy coin, which rose more than 55% in just a few days, following Grayscale’s move to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF traded on the U.S. market.
Zcash (ZEC) rose to more than $880 on August 23 before pulling back—its strongest level since 2018. Before the selloff began, the coin’s weekly gains were close to 66%. It is currently trading around $814. The coin’s market value is over $13.7 billion, and it ranks 11 on CoinMarketCap’s list of cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Even though the recent rally is still far from the coin’s all-time high of $5,941.80 in October 2016, current trading volume is not as weak as it was then. For about a year, Zcash had been trading around $40, before taking a long path of gains since then, rising more than 1,805%.
Why is a previous, unprecedented privacy-coin ETF considered?
The spark behind this surge was Grayscale’s amended registration statement submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The asset manager seeks to list the “Zcash Trust” on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker ZCSH as an exchange-traded fund (ETF), and the shares are expected to begin trading on August 25 or around then, if Grayscale receives regulatory approval.
Overcoming this hurdle would make this fund the first U.S. ETF to track a privacy coin—an asset class that regulated products have largely avoided so far. Zcash is known for its privacy features: it uses “zero-knowledge” cryptography to hide the identity of the transaction sender and receiver, as well as the amount.
This design made it attractive to investors seeking financial privacy, but at the same time raised concerns among regulators who see it as a tool that is difficult to trace for money laundering or evading sanctions.
Grayscale’s filing also revealed non-binding discussions under which DCG International Investments, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, could provide the fund with 200,000 units of ZEC valued at roughly $110 million based on the cited valuation. The asset manager said the fund held assets of about $263.5 million as of August 21.
Leverage flows into ZEC perpetual futures
Investors did not only buy ZEC; open interest in perpetual ZEC futures nearly doubled from $962.5 million on August 19 to $1.8 billion by Monday.
Trading volume over 24 hours was around $5.3 billion, according to reports. The average funding rate every eight hours was 0.0106%, indicating that traders were paying extra costs to maintain long positions.
Some market watchers also pointed to a broad rise in the digital-asset market, confirming that the observed growth includes the entire market. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum rose by double-digit percentages, and Bitcoin is currently trading near $80,000 after the announcement of Treasury bond buybacks and a wave of liquidations of short positions.
A vote awaited by coin holders
Zcash also had its own catalyst: a community vote on upgrading “NU7,” organized by Valar Group and Project Tachyon, opened on August 25 and runs for about 18 days, ending on September 14.
Voting eligibility was determined based on the amount of ZEC “shielded” held in the Ironwood pool at a network snapshot around 19:00 GMT on August 24, which could have prompted some holders to move funds into shielded balances. This vote could reshape the Zcash issuance schedule, although available data does not show how much the vote-related transfers contributed to the price spike.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Zcash ETF proposal by Grayscale, and when could it be listed?
Grayscale has submitted a request to convert its current Zcash trust fund into a spot ETF traded on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker ZCSH. Trading is expected to begin on August 25 or around then, subject to regulatory approval that has not yet been granted.
What was the highest level reached by the price of Zcash during this rally?
ZEC reached around $885–888, its highest level since 2018, before falling back to about $820 after gaining more than 50% in just a few days.
Why did Zcash previously fall in 2026?
Security researcher Taylor Hornby uncovered a vulnerability in Zcash’s “Orchard” shielded pool in mid-2026 that could have allowed ZEC coins to be forged, causing the coin to drop from around $602 to about $299 in June before developers fixed the flaw, according to a Cryptopolitan report.