The cryptocurrency token associated with the privacy-focused blockchain Zcash has seen its value more than triple in less than two weeks. This surge has propelled it to its highest valuation in over three years, amidst a broader rally within the crypto market that has favored certain assets.
According to CoinGecko, Zcash experienced a significant increase of 26% over the past day, reaching $170. This comes after an impressive rise of over 140% in just under two weeks. As a result, nearly $2 million worth of short positions have been liquidated, as reported by CoinGlass.
Experts attribute this upward trend to new institutional access and influential endorsements on social media platforms.
“The recent surge can largely be credited to Grayscale’s decision to allow eligible investors exposure through their funds,” explained Sean Dawson from Dervie. “Additionally, notable figures like investor Naval Ravikant have voiced their support.”
This aligns with data from Messari indicating a dramatic 1,000% increase in interest around Zcash recently.
The token has received mentions from key figures in the crypto world such as Ravikant and Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs, contributing significantly to its breakout after years of stagnation.
Zcash is known for enabling private transactions using zero-knowledge proofs that encrypt transaction details securely.
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Zcash offers fully private transactions via shielded addresses which obscure sender, receiver, and amount information on-chain.
“Bitcoin acts as insurance against fiat currencies while ZCash serves as insurance against Bitcoin itself,” Ravikant tweeted on October 1st regarding Zcash’s privacy features.
Dawson further noted that amid Bitcoin’s own growth spurt “investors are seeking substantial returns from related projects—a zero-knowledge version akin to Bitcoin holds appeal.”
This year some altcoins have performed better than others with tokens like Chainlink , Cardano , Sui , and Dogecoin showing varied results ranging between minor gains or losses
Despite predominantly institution-driven capital flows during this cycle finding individual areas where altcoins such as zCash exhibit strength isn’t unusual according Peter Chung head researcher at Presto Research who spoke Wednesday