Arthur Hayes urges Zcash holders to pull assets off centralized exchanges

Arthur Hayes urges ZEC holders to withdraw from centralized exchanges.

Holders of Zcash should avoid keeping ZEC on centralized exchanges (CEX), BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said.

If you hold $ZEC on a CEX, withdraw it to a self-custodial wallet and shield it.

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 12, 2025

“If you hold ZEC on a CEX, withdraw it to a non-custodial wallet using shielded transactions,” he wrote. 

Zcash uses a privacy model with two types of addresses:

• transparent addresses (“t” addresses) — they function like conventional public wallets;
• shielded addresses (“z” addresses) — they use zk-SNARK to hide the sender, recipient and transaction amount.

Centralized exchanges typically support only the transparent version of ZEC, making all CEX transactions fully traceable. To use shielded transfers, which make Zcash a privacy coin, users need non-custodial wallets that support zk-SNARK operations.

At the time of writing, 4.8 million ZEC — 23% of the token’s total supply — sit in the shielded pools Sprout, Sapling and Orchard.

Most assets are in the Orchard pool — the most modern of the three, introduced with the NU5 upgrade in 2022. It is based on the Halo 2 cryptographic construction.

Zcash rally

A sharp increase in shielded transactions coincided with a rise in the price of the anonymous cryptocurrency. On November 6 the coin surpassed $500 for the first time since 2018, then quickly reached $750.

Amid the rally, Zcash overtook the sector’s long-standing leader by market cap, Monero (XMR).

At press time ZEC trades at $473, giving it a market value of $7.8 billion.

Earlier, an analyst under the moniker Altcoin Sherpa predicted a “painful crash” for the asset after a 1,500% rise in two months. Some market participants pointed to overbought conditions, suggesting a pullback to the $300–$400 range.

Even so, many remain optimistic about Zcash’s prospects. Among them is Hayes, who predicted a rally to $10,000.

However, ZEC’s correction from local highs appears to have shaken the BitMEX co-founder’s confidence.

To sell, or not to sell, that is the question. $ZEC to $10k or $10 ?????????? 🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/hOgcx5iILc

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 11, 2025

“To sell, or not to sell — that is the question. ZEC at $10,000 or $10?” he asked in a recent post. 

ZEC treasury

On November 12, Nasdaq-listed Leap Therapeutics announced a rebrand to Cypherpunk Technologies Inc. The firm is shifting to a strategy of accumulating cryptocurrency — notably Zcash.

Cypherpunk raised $58.8 million via a private placement. The funding round was led by Winklevoss Capital, the venture firm founded by Gemini exchange creators Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

The company bought 203,775.27 ZEC at an average price of $245 per coin, spending $50 million. On November 13 Cypherpunk will begin trading under the ticker CYPH.

Following the news, shares of the still-Leap Therapeutics fell by almost 5%.

Earlier, Galaxy Digital analyst Will Owens called Zcash “the spiritual successor” to Bitcoin.