Overview
- ZEC recovered from a Saturday drop to $598 and is trading around $690–$700 on Monday, extending a year-to-date gain of roughly 1,000%.
- The token has climbed to the No. 12 spot by market value and now leads privacy coins by market cap after overtaking Monero.
- Institutional accumulation is in focus after the Winklevoss-backed Cypherpunk disclosed a $50 million ZEC purchase, Arthur Hayes said ZEC is Maelstrom’s second-largest liquid holding, and a Winklevoss-backed rebrand to Cypherpunk Technologies sent that company’s shares up about 170%.
- Momentum in privacy tech includes a16z-cited milestones such as the Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy Cluster, Zcash’s Zashi wallet, and Aztec launching a token sale via Uniswap’s Continuous Clearing Auction.
- Traders are watching liquidity and technical levels as reported volume tops $4.34 billion and analysts flag resistance near $740, with Zcash’s outperformance contrasting with Bitcoin’s recent 2% slide and dwindling odds of a near-term Fed rate cut.