ZEC’s market cap just reached $20 billion, surpassing the likes of HYPE and DOGE.
It was just three months ago that FUD around Zcash (ZEC) was running rampant, and a vulnerability in its Orchard privacy pool turned the tables and raised some uncomfortable questions.
The situation has taken a major turn, as the protocol patched the issue, and its privacy nature made it arguably the top performer in the large-cap altcoin space in the past three months.
The Meteoric Rise
Recall that the issue was first disclosed by Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox and members of Shielded Labs, who explained that a hacker could have used this weakness to make endless fake ZEC in Orchard, Zcash’s protected transaction area, without getting caught right away. Although by the time they made this public, the vulnerability was fixed, it still pushed some prominent names, such as Arthur Hayes, to dispose of their holdings, citing further potential issues.
The impact on the native token was felt immediately. The asset traded at $650 before the issue became public and tumbled by 60% within a day or so to $260 as FUD was being spread left and right.
That’s when the trend reversed for the privacy coin as it managed to stabilize at around $500, where it spent the next couple of months. The most significant leg up began with the August 19 market-wide breakout that drove it to $900. While the rest of the market stalled following the initial gains, ZEC kept climbing and briefly exceeded $1,200 earlier today for the first time in almost 10 years.
This means that the token has skyrocketed by 370% since the early June low. Its market cap now is above $20 billion, making it bigger than HYPE and DOGE.
Data from CoinGlass shows that ZEC’s spectacular surge over the past 24 hours has resulted in $46 million in short liquidations, the highest among all cryptocurrencies.
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The Drivers and What’s Next
Shortly after the mid-August rally began, Grayscale debuted its Zcash ETF (on August 25), which has already raked in $34.4 million in net inflows.
“The bigger question isn’t whether Zcash can keep going up. It’s whether the ETF era is creating a new pathway for capital to rotate into crypto assets that were previously overlooked. ZEC may be an early test of that thesis,” commented The Wolf of All Streets.
Meanwhile, Ted Pillows noted that a major whale DCA-ed into ZEC between 2022 and 2024, accumulating 22,840 ZEC for about $1.1 million. The position had grown to $23 million by today, when they transferred the entire amount to Binance, potentially to cash in.
Crypto Patel weighed in on ZEC’s price potential, indicating that it has created a “Beautiful Cup & Handle Pattern” on the weekly scale. He added that the asset has broken the Neckline/Resistance of this pattern, which could materialize in another massive surge to $2,200.
As Per $ZEC Chart, you can see a Beautiful Cup & Handle Pattern formed on the Weekly Timeframe.@Zcash has already broken the Neckline/Resistance of this pattern, and if the pattern follows the 100% target, the target could be around $2,200.
No doubt, Cup & Handle is a strong… pic.twitter.com/Eys4EivIHQ
— Crypto Patel (@CryptoPatel) September 6, 2026
