Zcash briefly touched $888, its highest level since 2018, before easing to around $843. Open interest in ZEC perpetual futures nearly doubled in five days as traders piled into the privacy coin.
Zcash briefly reached $888—its highest price since 2018—before pulling back to around $843. That leaves the coin up nearly 7% over 24 hours and roughly 48% since August 20. The coin, which trades as ZEC, remains well short of its record high of $3,191.93, set in October 2016. Yet the rally marks a sharp turnaround: ZEC traded as low as $16 just two years ago and has gained more than 1,800% over the past year.
Futures bets nearly double
ZEC perpetual futures open interest nearly doubled from $962.5 million on August 19 to $1.8 billion on Monday. Over the same 24 hours, trading volume reached $5.3 billion. The average eight-hour funding rate stood at 0.0106%, meaning traders paid a premium to hold long positions. Rising open interest alongside positive funding signals stronger demand for long bets, which raises the risk of a short squeeze if ZEC keeps rising, or of long liquidations if it reverses.
Privacy narrative fuels ETF hopes
Interest in Zcash grew over the past year as investors searched for an alternative to Bitcoin with stronger privacy protections. Zcash shields balances to make transactions harder to trace, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are transparent by default. The narrative gained further momentum after Grayscale filed to convert its Zcash Trust into an ETF in November, a proposal still under review.
A recovery from a security scare
That bullishness was tested in June, when ZEC plunged from $635 to $309 after developers disclosed a flaw in its Orchard shielded pool that could have enabled undetectable counterfeiting. Developers issued an emergency patch, then activated the Ironwood upgrade in July, retiring Orchard and adding accounting safeguards to trap any counterfeit ZEC in the old pool. Developers could not determine whether the flaw had been exploited.
A Winklevoss-backed miner builds a stake
Winklevoss-backed Cypherpunk Technologies launched a Zcash mining operation in August that it estimates represents 18% of the network's hashrate. The company holds about 323,394 ZEC, worth around $268 million, and aims to acquire 5% of the circulating supply.
Source: Decrypt
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