Zcash price reaches 2016 high, market cap exceeds $20 billion

ChainCatcher report: Zcash (ZEC) price has risen to its highest level since 2016, with market capitalization surpassing $20 billion. According to CoinGecko data, ZEC briefly reached $1,249.28 before retreating to approximately $1,195, representing a 45% increase over the past week and a 138% gain over 30 days. However, the current price remains below the all-time high of $3,191.93 set on October 28, 2016. This rally is primarily driven by Grayscale’s conversion of its Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), coded as ZCSH, which began trading on NYSE ARCA on August 25, allowing investors to gain exposure to ZEC through brokerage accounts. As of last Friday’s close, the ETF was trading at $83.77 with assets under management totaling $463.2 million. Zcash enables users to choose between public transactions and “shielded” transactions, the latter using zero-knowledge proofs to verify payments without revealing the sender, recipient, or transaction amount. In an analysis on August 31, Grayscale’s research head Zach Pandl stated that for privacy-focused users, this feature may become “essential.” Pandl noted that artificial intelligence could increase demand for financial privacy by making it easier to link public blockchain transactions to user identities.