The Grayscale Zcash Trust has once again attracted attention after news circulated that the investment product had raised approximately $46 million in shielded ZEC.
According to CoinMarketCap data, this news comes amid a sharp surge in the price of Zcash (ZEC) over the past day. At the time of writing, ZEC was trading at about $170.60, up approximately 33.6% in the past 24 hours, with a daily trading volume of $760.06 million. This is clearly a significant figure and demonstrates the intense market interest in this privacy asset.
The presence of shielded ZEC makes this situation even more interesting. Zcash’s privacy feature, through zk-SNARKs, allows transactions to be conducted without revealing the details of the sender, recipient, or amount.
If indeed such substantial funds have entered the Trust in the form of shielded coins, it can be interpreted as a signal of institutional confidence in ZEC’s privacy aspects, rather than mere speculation. The question arises: is this the beginning of the entry of major players seriously considering privacy-based assets?
Not only that, the ZEC price surge of more than 30% in a single day has caught the attention of traders, who may be wondering whether this rally is merely a temporary surge or whether there’s a deeper reason.
The large accumulation by institutions through the Grayscale Trust certainly brings another layer to this story. On the other hand, crypto markets often exhibit rapid fluctuations, so the risk of a correction remains high. However, the support of daily volumes exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars suggests that ZEC is not only being played by retail traders, but also large funds.
Rewinding back to last September, CNF reported that Grayscale had filed new documents for an ETF covering Hedera, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
The company intends to convert its existing Trust product into an ETF, as it did with Bitcoin and Ethereum throughout 2024. This means that Grayscale isn’t stopping at just two major assets, but is instead trying to pave the way for other altcoins to be accessed in a more institutional-friendly manner.
That same month, news emerged about a Chainlink-based ETF, while the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed decisions on two altcoin ETF applications: Canary HBAR and Grayscale Polkadot.
This SEC move demonstrates that the path to an altcoin ETF is not easy. However, with Grayscale’s continued efforts, including news of its shielded ZEC accumulation, it’s understandable that the market is interpreting this as a sign of seriousness.
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