Amid the ongoing market slowdown where even Bitcoin is struggling to surge, Zcash (ZEC) has managed to clock consistent price hikes on the crypto charts. The token rose in price from the $50 mark to breach $700 within this period, grabbing market attention.
A number of factors have contributed to the token having logged a growth of 1,500 percent between September and November. Cypherpunk Technologies’ decision to launch a Zcash treasury strategy backed by Winklevoss Capital is among major reasons leading to the asset’s overall rally.
Zcash was launched in October 2016 as a privacy-focussed crypto that uses an encrypted ledger using zero-knowledge proofs to provide complete anonymity in transactions. The token was coined by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company (now Electric Coin Co.), founded by U.S.-based computer security expert, Zooko Wilcox.
On Thursday, November 13 the asset reflected a price surge of 12 percent to trade at $520 before logging a minor drop to trade at $496. In this article, we take a deeper look into factors that may have contributed to ZEC’s surge.
Winklevoss-powered treasury boost
Earlier this week, Cypherpunk Technologies (previously known as Leap Therapeutics) announced the launch of its Zcash Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy. The biotech company, founded by the Winklevoss twins, purchased 203,775 ZEC tokens to feed this treasury. At the time of token acquisition, Cypherpunk shelled out $50 million – having bought $245.37 per token. Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are billionaire brothers who own the Gemini exchange.
As part of the treasury, the Toronto, Canada-based company has grabbed 1.25 percent of the total Zcash supply that is capped at 21 million tokens, CoinMarketCap shows. The company plans to bring at least five percent of the total ZEC supply into its treasury, as per reports. The token’s circulating supply presently stands at 16.3 million.
In October, Winklevoss Capital had led an investment round of $58.88 million into Cypherpunk – capital from which was used by the company to establish the treasury. The move played a key role in bringing the investors’ focus to Zcash and subsequently pumping its price.
Upcoming Zcash halving
The Zcash token is set to undergo halving sometime this month. This block halving event that occurs every four years, reduces the rate of adding new tokens to its supply and increases its scarcity in the market. The upcoming halving for Zcash will be its third, reducing the reward for network validators from 1.5625 ZEC to around 0.78125 ZEC.
Ahead of the halving, the anticipation of reduced new token supply seemingly led to speculative activity around the asset.
“By late October ZEC had already delivered returns of several hundred percent from its early-September base. This move coincided with growing mentions of an upcoming Zcash halving and early speculative flows rotating into ‘forgotten’ large-caps,” Raajamurugan. R B, crypto trade analyst at Giottus crypto exchange told CoinHeadlines.
Analyst’s take on Zcash
In a period where many major tokens have moved modestly or traded sideways, Zcash has staged an almost 13 times comeback. This was classic accumulation territory: low prices, little attention, and quiet buying, Raajamurugan said.
At present, the token ranks 16th on CoinMarketCap’s crypto index – boasting a market cap of $8.28 billion. After tagging the $700 region, ZEC slipped back into the high-$400s to low-$500s , wiping out a chunk of froth but still leaving early buyers with massive gains.
The analyst said that Zcash’s trajectory on the price chart looked like a textbook parabolic blow-off , with huge daily candles , large intraday swings , and momentum indicators such as RSI pushing into the 80s, signalling extremely overbought conditions.
“The current rally is described as ‘classic pre-halving positioning,’ where traders buy aggressively before the supply cut, betting that scarcity will push prices higher. This rally isn’t random; it sits at the intersection of fundamentals, narrative and market structure,” he said.
The Zcash ecosystem is getting prepped to undergo infrastructure improvements to make its network faster. Its funding model is slated to become more decentralized while “Project Tachyon” is set to completely revamp how Zcash wallets interact with its own Layer-1 Zcash blockchain.
Raajamurugan said these factors coupled with pure market mechanics, including massive short squeezes and aggressive leverage are pushing the asset up the price ladder.
He did, however, reiterate that several independent analysts warn that ZEC is ripe for correction – advising investors to be cautious.
“RSI levels above 80 on recent peaks signify deeply overbought territory. Patterns like rising wedges and parabolic curves often precede sharp pullbacks. After a 700-1,200 percent run, even a healthy correction can be brutal in dollar terms,” he warned.