Zcash Hits 9-Year High as Grayscale Mining Data Shows Edge Over Bitcoin
Zcash (ZEC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
newsable.asianetnews.com reports that Zcash (ZEC) surged to a nine-year high near $1,155 on Saturday, outperforming Bitcoin which declined almost 3% over the same week. The token rose more than 14% for the week, marking its third consecutive weekly gain and roughly doubling its price since mid-August 2025. Grayscale stated that mining ZEC became significantly more profitable than mining Bitcoin for the same amount of electricity, with rewards per megawatt-hour estimated to be four times higher.
The asset manager noted that Zcash miner rewards are about twice as high as Bitcoin's per mining rig per day, although the machines are not interoperable. Grayscale’s Zcash fund (ZCSH) raised $179 million in 11 days of trading, lifting assets under management above $700 million. The fund ranked in the top 1% of nearly 4,000 exchange-traded products for net asset growth, becoming the fastest-growing altcoin ETP by net assets.
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits dropped from 'extremely bullish' to 'bullish,' though message volume rose over 870% in a month. Grayscale explained that higher token prices encourage more mining, which increases network security and may help sustain prices. Bitcoin’s daily miner rewards were estimated at $35 million, while Zcash’s pot sits at around $2 million, meaning the current mining edge is temporary. Bitcoin has fallen over 11% this year, whereas Zcash has gained over 123%.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ZEC, measured when this story was written up on 12 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Zcash is trading at $1,164.87, with a 24-hour buy ratio of 50.8% indicating a slight majority of buyers. However, the 1-hour buy ratio of 49.8% and the 4-hour ratio of 46.4% suggest that buying pressure is fading in the short term. The 24-hour volume delta is positive at $6,430,004, showing net inflows, but the 4-hour delta is negative at -$1,368,293, indicating recent selling. Volume delta measures the difference between buy and sell volume, revealing whether net capital is entering or leaving the market. The 1-hour delta is -$34,757, confirming immediate selling pressure despite the longer-term positive trend. Spot volume for the period reached $409,160,017 across 1,592,984 trades.
The latest daily buy ratio of 52.9% sits at the 82nd percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 50.2% - stronger buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for ZEC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 50.2%, making today's 24-hour reading of 50.8% only marginally higher. Trading volume was 1.43 times the weekly average, indicating significantly elevated activity. Net volume delta for the eight-day period totaled $13,170,495, contrasting with the mixed short-term deltas. Price increased 13.9% over eight days, confirming the strong weekly momentum. This represents an unusual day for the coin, driven by volume well above the average baseline.