Since September, the price of Zcash has surged by 700%, with the volume of shielded transactions in the anonymous cryptocurrency reaching a record 4.9 million ZEC.
The platform, which employs zero-knowledge proof technology zk-SNARKs, allows tokens to be transferred into a shielded mining pool, concealing transaction history. Throughout its development, Zcash has implemented three versions of its privacy protocol—Sprout, Sapling, and Orchard.
Each new generation formed its own shielded pool while maintaining full compatibility with previous ones. Currently, Orchard is the largest, accounting for 4.1 million ZEC.
Helius Kab CEO Mert Mumtaz described the trend as “one of the craziest in crypto industry history.”
this is the craziest chart in crypto
it is the amount of ZEC being shielded and it is vertical
the more ZEC is shielded, the higher the anonymity set and the more private Zcash becomes
CT is quite literally making crypto more private again
incredible loop pic.twitter.com/htGulJMQvO
— mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) October 27, 2025
“The more ZEC is shielded, the higher the anonymity set and the more private the entire Zcash network becomes,” he explained.
Earlier, Mumtaz announced the formation of a new independent developer team focused on scaling and blockchain security.
Leader Among Anonymous Coins
Zcash prices continue to rise. Over the past 24 hours, the coin has increased by 8.6%, and over the week, by 46.4%. At the time of writing, the asset is trading at $344.
One of the initial catalysts for the rally was the launch of Zcash Trust by Grayscale. Legislative initiatives threatening user privacy may have also spurred demand for the asset.
However, the ZEC price remains 89.2% below its all-time high of $3191, reached on October 29, 2016, according to CoinGecko. Yet, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes expects the anonymous token to rally to $10,000.
Mumtaz predicted that the privacy coin will surpass XRP in market capitalization.
In terms of growth, Zcash significantly outpaces the sector leader, Monero. For comparison, over the past 24 hours, the price of XMR has decreased by 3.6%, and over the week, it has gained only 3%.
Over the month, Monero has risen by 13.6%, while Zcash has soared by 404%. The market capitalizations of the coins are $6.1 billion and $5.6 billion, respectively.
From 2027, new AML rules in the EU will come into effect, banning anonymous crypto accounts and the use of privacy coins.