ZCash ends multi-year slump with breakout above $370

ZCash (ZEC) continued its rally, breaking above $370 on Monday. The coin already erased years of downtrend, returning to its valuations from 2018 and expecting an even bigger rally. 

ZCash (ZEC) is in focus again, remaining among the day’s growing coins. The coin broke above $370 for the first time since 2018, on trading volumes above $1.6B. It’s now ranked 35th in terms of market capitalization, after starting out outside the top 100. 

ZEC is expected to continue growing, returning as a blue-chip coin. Some of the bullish predictions see four-digit prices in early 2026. The coin is a breakaway trend, independent of the weakening interest in other altcoins. 

ZEC seeks a higher price range

The recent ZEC rally has not stalled, instead going vertical to a new price range. The coin has erased its previous downward trend in fiat terms. Since its launch, ZEC has lost most of its value against BTC. 

In the past year, ZEC also rose by nearly 500% in BTC terms, up to 0.002 BTC. While long-term holders may have taken losses on ZEC, newer users and investors are among the most successful for 2025. 

ZEC open interest is still in the higher range at over $375M, though much lower compared to blue-chip assets. Derivatives on ZEC rely mostly on Binance, with Hyperliquid rallying to the second spot. 

Overall, privacy coins and tokens rallied to a valuation of $14.8B, still dominated by Monero (XMR) and ZEC. Following the ZEC rally, XMR also recovered to $348.13. Older privacy coins like DASH and Decred recovered, but Railgun (RAIL) failed to rise on the Ethereum privacy narrative. LTC, often grouped with privacy coins, recovered above $100. 

Is the ZEC rally sustainable? 

The current ZEC rally followed a recent short squeeze, as traders are betting on a reversal. Over 64% of open interest was on short positions. On Hyperliquid, whales are more bullish, with just 48% shorting ZEC. 

For ZEC, liquidity is available all the way to $380, though most of the positions were either closed or liquidated. Up to $5.92M in short liquidations happened on Binance in the past 24 hours. 

The ZEC rally is driven by the general trend of using veiled coins through Near Protocol. A total of 4.89M ZEC have been deposited to shielded pools, meaning it is improbable they get sold on exchanges. 

Currently, ZEC has a small spot market, and an active derivative market, leading to significant price fluctuations. While the ZCash community has grown more active on social media, the ZEC rally is viewed with some skepticism. ZCash has a relatively low mindshare of 0.5%, but interest in the project has grown by over 2,200% recently, based on Messari data.

Spot exchanges are still avoiding the trading of privacy coins, due to KYC concerns. ZEC can be de-anonymized, but the community is trying to create a decentralized trading hub for untraceable coins. 

The sudden popularity of ZCash has also caused a centralization of mining. As of October, ViaBTC contributes 51.2% of the known hashrate, potentially making the coin controllable. However, the pool is made up of different miners, who generally do not want to change the chain’s history. 

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