Zcash Surges Past $1,200 as Grayscale ETF Drives Privacy Coin Rally
Zcash (ZEC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Zcash has surged more than 2,300% this year to become crypto's ninth-largest coin, driven by Grayscale's spot ETF that is betting against a looming European ban, according to startupfortune.com. The token hit an intraday high of $1,297.77 on September 9, its highest level since 2018, before settling around $1,140 with a market cap near $19.8 billion. Grayscale’s ZCSH ETF began trading on NYSE Arca on August 25, rapidly growing past $500 million in assets.
However, reporting from Bitcoin.com News indicates that outside investors only contributed about $70 million of that growth. The remaining $100 million came from DCG International Investments, which transferred 85,705 ZEC tokens to the fund in a related-party transaction. This means a significant portion of the fund's assets are the sponsor's own coins moved onto its balance sheet.
Meanwhile, SwissBorg added ZEC to its exchange, and on-chain trackers identified a wallet moving $13.65 million in tokens. The EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulation will ban licensed venues from servicing privacy coins by July 1, 2027, but American buyers are wagering that scarcity and momentum outweigh the regulatory risk. Zcash mining has also become the most profitable proof-of-work algorithm, pushing the network's hashrate to 91% of its record.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ZEC, measured when this story was written up on 16 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Zcash is trading at $1,110.43 with a 24-hour spot volume of $207,274,663. The 24-hour buy ratio is 49.9%, indicating a near-even split between buyers and sellers over the full day. In the last hour, buying pressure has intensified, with the buy ratio rising to 53.3% and a positive volume delta of $469,827. This contrasts with the four-hour window, where the buy ratio is lower at 46.6% and the volume delta is negative at -$2,326,425. The cumulative volume delta for the 24-hour close is positive at $602,176, showing that net buying has outweighed net selling over the day. Net buying occurred in 14 of the last 24 hours, suggesting that while momentum is shifting upward in the short term, the broader daily trend remains balanced.
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 50.6%, making today's 24-hour ratio of 49.9% slightly below the weekly norm by 0.7 percentage points. Trading volume has been subdued relative to the average, recording just 0.67x the typical daily volume. The coin experienced net buying on six of the past seven days, with a total volume delta of $21,852,069 for the period. Despite the recent rally, the price has dropped 5.7% over the eight-day window. This indicates that while the coin remains in a net buying phase over the week, today's volume contraction suggests a pause in the aggressive accumulation seen previously.