Expert Calls Zcash’s Rally “Crypto’s Most Successful Scam”

Critics brand Zcash’s surge a pump-and-dump as price halves since mid-November.

Since mid-November, the price of the privacy coin Zcash has fallen by more than 50%. A crypto enthusiast known as Crypto Bitlord said the recent ZEC rally to $720 was “the most successful scam in the history of cryptocurrencies”. 

$ZCASH has to be one of the most successful large scale pump and dump scams in crypto

Huge VC, media and industry figures all working together with one common goal:

Selling dogshit as “the next bitcoin”

Congratulations @0xMert_, seriously

— Crypto Bitlord (@crypto_bitlord7) December 1, 2025

“Venture funds, media and influencers united for one goal — to sell dogshit wrapped as ‘the next bitcoin’,” he wrote. 

In his post, Crypto Bitlord congratulated Helius Labs’ head, Mert Mumtaz, who had been actively promoting the privacy coin over the past few months. 

Earlier, a number of commentators called the surge of interest in Zcash artificial. Investor Mark Moss reinforced those doubts by posting a screenshot of a marketing agency’s paid-promotion pitch for the cryptocurrency.

Zcash’s star turn 

Since October, Zcash has jumped 1,500%, peaking in November at $723. The asset’s market capitalisation topped $11bn — by that measure it overtook the sector’s near-permanent leader, Monero (XMR). For a time, ZEC also sat in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value. 

BitMEX’s co-founder predicted a run to $10,000. Mumtaz claimed the privacy coin would overtake XRP by market cap. 

Analysts linked the rise in Zcash to heightened demand for confidentiality amid contentious initiatives such as the EU’s “chat control” bill, the introduction of digital IDs and a ban in Europe on anonymous crypto accounts and the use of privacy coins.

The amount of ZEC in the Sprout, Sapling and Orchard shielded pools reached a record 4.9m tokens — more than 20% of total supply. At the time of writing, the figure remains at that level. 

Galaxy Digital analyst Will Owens called Zcash “the spiritual successor” to the first cryptocurrency. In his view, the coin is already an alternative to digital gold. The community argued at length about this. Critics warned from the outset of a painful crash. 

Is the rally over? 

At the time of writing, ZEC trades at $334. It is down 26% over the past 24 hours and more than 50% in two weeks. 

The pullback sparked a flurry of reactions. Technician Duo Nine believes Zcash supporters intentionally pumped the coin to find “exit liquidity”. A user going by TXMC linked the drop to the end of a marketing campaign. 

A trader known as nextfuckingthing described it this way: 

“Opinion leaders who sucked all the money out of this cycle lost a huge part of their assets. A plan was needed to get it all back. The idea came to shove the community a fake privacy coin, ZEC, and convince everyone that privacy matters. On a random day everyone started promoting a nine-year-old token. Looks organic. ‘This is the best version of bitcoin,’ they said. ‘This is the bitcoin we always needed.’ They recouped their losses, and you became a community member. At least your losses are not visible on-chain. You got caught again. Thanks for playing.” 

A user known as kook suggested compiling a list of everyone who promoted Zcash.

you should have a list of everyone who shilled you this fake-privacy bundled corporate scamcoin

crypto’s worst actors made you a $zec community member

it’s always the same people

learn for next time pic.twitter.com/aRw3FMXe37

— kook 🏝️ (@KookCapitalLLC) December 1, 2025

“The worst people in crypto made you a ZEC community member. It is always the same faces,” he wrote. 

Mumtaz responded to the criticism of Zcash. In his view, detractors are inconsistent — branding the coin “a scam” no matter which way the price moves. 

> zcash goes up when market is down

washed traders: hmm must be a scam, everything else is going down

> zcash goes down when market is down

washed traders: see I told you it was a scam because it’s going down like 100% of other coins

(still up 500% against others)

retardio https://t.co/Fx4upWeIlP

— mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) December 1, 2025

The Helius founder also stressed that ZEC is still “up 500%”. 

“Everyone wants parabolic growth, but nobody accepts reversion to the mean,” noted one supporter of the privacy coin. 

In November, the Winklevoss brothers, founders of the Gemini exchange, established a Zcash treasury.