Analysis
Zcash Rally Adds 124% in a Month as Bitcoin Stalls Below $80K
Zcash rally pushes ZEC into crypto's top 10 with a 124% monthly gain, but F2Pool's Chun Wang says fundamentals don't match the current hype.
16h ago 4,280
BLOCKINSIDERLoadingZcash rally pushes ZEC into crypto's top 10 with a 124% monthly gain, but F2Pool's Chun Wang says fundamentals don't match the current hype.
The crypto market has found its latest obsession. A Zcash rally that added 124% in a month has pushed ZEC price into the top 10 by market cap, and the argument over whether it belongs there is now louder than the price chart itself.
Bitcoin (BTC) price has had a decent run of its own. BTC price climbed roughly 22% over the past month, from about $64,800 in early August to near $79,300 on Tuesday, according to data from CoinGecko. That said, Bitcoin slipped back below $80,000 this week as traders weighed a possible Federal Reserve rate hike at the 15 September meeting.
Zcash (ZEC) made that look slow. ZEC traded at $1,135.76 as of 8 September 2026, according to CoinGecko, down about 5% over 24 hours but still up 34% over the week. Its market cap sat near $19.2 billion, ninth on CoinGecko's rankings, up from 82nd a year ago.
The biggest single change came from Wall Street. Grayscale converted its Zcash Trust into ZCSH, the first US spot ZEC exchange-traded fund, which began trading on NYSE Arca on 25 August. As per Grayscale's own disclosures, the fund held $463.2 million in net assets and 444,608 ZEC as of 4 September. Its best single day of inflows came on 2 September at $12.6 million.
Short sellers then did the rest. Roughly $34.5 million in bearish ZEC bets were reportedly liquidated on 4 September as the coin crossed $1,000 for the first time since its 2016 listing. Another $45 million or so followed as ZEC pushed toward $1,200 on 6 September. Every forced close is a buy order, and that is exactly how a rally feeds itself.
Notably, the privacy sector as a whole is the only crypto category trading above its 2025 high. According to CoinMarketCap, the sector has gained 213% since Bitcoin's October 2025 peak, with Zcash accounting for more than 60% of its roughly $33.6 billion valuation.
Not everyone is buying the story. F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang said Zcash's recent gains have been driven largely by "narrative buying," arguing that a higher market capitalization does not mean its fundamentals justify its current ranking. He said Zcash has long faced questions over token distribution, governance and security, and that its privacy narrative alone is not enough to put it on par with networks such as Solana and Hyperliquid, which he said have clearer real-world usage demand.
Wang, who posts on X as @satofishi, wrote on 8 September: "Zcash's latest rally is a narrative bid." His post pointed to the Founders' Reward, which routed 20% of block rewards to founders and early backers for four years, and to the Orchard vulnerability disclosed earlier this year. The Founders' Reward ended with the Canopy upgrade in November 2020, according to CoinMarketCap.
Grayscale sits on the other side of the debate. Steve Vanourny, the firm's head of index, said in the ETF launch materials that as AI expands financial monitoring, "demand for genuine financial privacy will only grow."
Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer of Maelstrom, has been the loudest ZEC bull of 2026. In May, he said Zcash "might have a 5 times potential over the next year," though he later said he sold his position in June after the Orchard bug disclosure, according to Stocktwits.
The chart is stretched. ZEC has more than doubled in a month, and Tuesday's 5% pullback is the first real pause since the ETF launch. The 24-hour range of $1,115 to $1,218 on CoinGecko marks the immediate battleground.
Below that, $1,064 is the support level analysts flagged after the weekend high, with a break putting $950 back in play. The 7-day low of $788.68 is the last line before the rally structure breaks. On the upside, $1,249 remains the level to beat.
In the bullish scenario, a daily close above $1,249 opens the $1,300 zone, and as per analysts, a sustained move through that region brings $1,800 into focus. Continued ZCSH inflows and further short liquidations are the fuel that would need to keep arriving.
That said, in a bearish scenario, losing $1,064 shifts attention to $950, then the $788 weekly low. Wang's critique will not move price on its own, but if ETF inflows dry up while shorts stop covering, the "narrative bid" label will get a real test. Zcash bulls have had their moment. Whether the fundamentals catch up to the rank is the question the next two weeks will answer.
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