Zcash is shooting to new highs. In the past 24 hours alone ZEC gained 20.6% and at the moment of writing trades near ~$520 — its highest level in almost 7 years. The market last saw such quotes in 2018.
The coin’s market cap is approaching $8.5 billion. Zcash already climbed to #26 among the largest cryptocurrencies and overtook Monero, Litecoin, Avalanche, Hedera and Sui.
Against this backdrop, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he sees no reason for the rally to stop — and expects ZEC at $1,000, while in a longer horizon he doesn’t rule out even $10,000.
Context — global regulators are tightening control, while demand for privacy is growing
The privacy-coin segment has surged: total capitalization of “privacy coins” is now around $26 billion, with +5.8% added just in the last 24 hours. The main driver is tightening regulation worldwide.
in the EU new AML rules will take effect in 2027
They directly ban anonymous accounts and the use of privacy coins like ZEC or XMR in “incognito mode”.
Meanwhile, the sector as a whole is rising:
- Dash +124% in 7 days
- Decred +150%
- Horizen +46%
- Railgun +42%
Zcash is the main beneficiary.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are in the red, while privacy coins are “in the green”
Interestingly, the growth of privacy assets contrasts with the broader market.
On November 5:
- BTC fell below $100,000 for the first time since June
- ETH broke down through the $3,000 level
In other words — capital is flowing into privacy, not into mainstream Layer-1s.
Zcash on-chain metrics hit new records
ZecHub reports an all-time high of shielded transactions — 4.96 million ZEC. This is more than 30% of the coin’s total supply.
According to CoinDesk Research, today more than one third of all crypto operations take place in the private layer.
The trend is clear: more and more users are pulling assets out of public blockchains and into encrypted environments.
“Zcash is the spiritual successor of Bitcoin”
This is how Galaxy Digital analyst Will Owens puts it. He stresses: for part of the market, this ZEC hype is not just speculation, but a return to the roots of crypto — the cypherpunk ethos — when privacy wasn’t a feature, but a foundational principle.
