Overview
- ZEC jumped as much as 33% on Friday to nearly $735 and is holding above $600, lifting its valuation to roughly $10–11 billion and marking a tenfold rise in five weeks.
- Spot and derivatives activity surged with more than $1.8 billion in daily spot volume, elevated open interest on Binance, Hyperliquid and Bybit, and long–short ratios near parity around 1.1.
- Derivatives saw heavy turbulence with about $51 million in short liquidations and over $59 million in total ZEC positions wiped out, reflecting stretched technicals and fast moves.
- On‑chain privacy use expanded as roughly 20–25% of circulating ZEC now sits in shielded addresses and about 30% of transactions use the shielded pool, supported by the Zashi wallet and ECC’s upgrade work, including plans under Project Tachyon.
- Miners are seeing multi‑year strength with a record Puell Multiple and a sharply rising hash rate, while high‑profile backing—Arthur Hayes says ZEC is now Maelstrom’s No. 2 liquid holding—and analyst targets up to $1,000 underscore bullish sentiment alongside regulatory scrutiny after the Samourai Wallet developer’s sentencing.