What’s Happening With This Altcoin: Huge Surge, Arthur Hayes Makes $10,000 Claim

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) has re-entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies with a strong rise today.

ZEC's market capitalization reached $10.9 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid's $10.8 billion.

The price of ZEC briefly hit $750 earlier today and is currently trading at $721.91. This represents a 38.93% increase over the past 24 hours. This puts ZEC at its highest price since early 2018. However, this remains well below its all-time high of over $3,000, reached in October 2016 when supply was extremely limited, according to CoinGecko data.

Chart showing the rise in ZEC price.

Arthur Hayes, one of the leading names in the crypto market, shared his position in his portfolio after the sharp rise in Zcash:

“Due to its rapid price increase, ZEC is now the second-largest liquid asset in my Maelstrom Fund portfolio, after BTC. ZEC's private transactions will power the next wave of true DEXs. ZEC is heading to $10,000.”

Analysts and community members point to several factors that have triggered ZEC's recent sharp rise:

• Re-emergence of financial surveillance and privacy debates in Europe
• Growing interest in Zcash's mobile wallet integrations
• ZEC exceeds key levels in technical models and on-chain metrics
• Increasing trading volumes and signs of revival spreading to the market

Zcash has a blockchain structure that allows users to optionally hide their transactions. Users can hide their transaction history by moving their tokens to special addresses called “privacy pools.”