Zcash rose to $851 on Friday, its highest price since January 2018, as Grayscale Investments moved forward with converting its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF. The cryptocurrency gained roughly 38% over the past week amid the filing.
Grayscale filed its fifth amendment to the SEC on August 21 to convert the trust, which holds ZEC positions worth roughly $500 million at Friday's prices. A Grayscale ETF approval would allow institutional and retail investors to gain ZEC exposure through traditional brokerage accounts without custody risk. Grayscale has won SEC approval for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs; a ZEC approval would follow a similar regulatory path.
Zecash futures volume reached $4.55 billion on Friday, according to exchange data. The prior eight-year price peak of roughly $800 occurred in January 2018, near the height of the 2017 bull market. ZEC collapsed sharply in June from above $60 to the low $30s before the recent recovery began.
Zcash is a privacy-focused blockchain launched in 2016 with optional shielded transactions that obscure sender, receiver and transaction amount. The network has remained relatively small compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum, with a market capitalization near $8 billion at Friday's price. U.S. regulators have scrutinized privacy coins in recent years over concerns about illicit use, though Zcash's optional privacy feature differs from coins like Monero where privacy is mandatory.
Grayscale currently manages roughly $60 billion in assets across its crypto product suite. If approved, a ZEC ETF would give the trust daily redemption and creation mechanisms similar to its Bitcoin and Ethereum products, reducing the trading discount that often characterizes closed-end trusts.
Grayscale's five previous SEC amendments for Zcash have not yet produced approval, and no timeline exists for a decision on the latest filing. The SEC has approved spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs but has not yet approved spot ETFs for other layer-one protocols.
