Zcash is crypto's flagship privacy coin: unlike Bitcoin,
ZEC uses zero-knowledge cryptography to hide sender, receiver and amount. Eight years in the shadows — then this.On Friday it broke $1,000 for the first time since its 2016 launch, touching $1,029 on Binance — up 2,300% over the past year. The move flipped Dogecoin in market cap and force-closed $34.5 million in short positions on the way through the round number.
The catalyst was Fed Governor Waller hinting at a rate pause, then Friday's jobs report (162,000 vs. a 56,000 forecast) pulled Bitcoin back below $80,000 while Zcash held. On August 25, Grayscale launched the
ZCSH ETF on NYSE Arca — so the most private coin in crypto now trades on an SEC-regulated exchange.Eight years of hiding, and all it took to get noticed was four digits.
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