Zcash has grown rapidly in recent days, with prices rising to $888, the highest level since 2018, then falling around $843. On the basis of the last four days, the ZEC cumulatively increased by more than 50 per cent, and by about 7 per cent over the past 24 hours.

This round has also led to a significant scaling up of derivatives trade. The encrypted derivatives data platform Loris Tools shows that the unsettled amount of the ZEC contract for perpetuity rose from $962.5 million on August 19 to $1.8 billion on Monday, close to doubling in five days; 24 hours of trade reached $5.3 billion.

The contract market is warming.

The balance reflects the size of the contracts that are not flat on the market. With regard to the financial rate, the ZEC averaged an eight-hour fund rate of 0.0106 per cent, reflecting a stronger demand for multiple holding and a willingness on the part of traders to pay a premium to maintain the increase.

However, overcrowding of the contract market also magnifies volatility. If prices continue to rise, empty space may be forced to settle and push further upwards; if prices fall, leverage may also be concentrated in liquidation, leading to faster declines.

ETF application for lead attention

Over the past year, Zcash ' s focus has continued to rise as part of the funding was sought for alternative targets other than bitcoin. As a currency of privacy, Zcash improves the privacy of transactions, including by blocking the balance, unlike bitcoin and the Ethera, which defaults data on the open chain.

Market interest increased further in November last year. At that time, the greyscale submitted an application to convert Zcash Trust into ETF. The application is still under review.

Upgrade after security incidents

ZEC experienced a sharp fall in June, from $635 to $309. The reason was that the developers had disclosed that the Orchard shield had been found to be defective with Claude Opus 4.8, which could theoretically lead to an undetectable increase in forgery.

The development team then launched emergency patches in June and launched the Ironwood upgrade in July. The upgrade discontinued Orchard and added new bookkeeping protection with the aim of limiting potential anomalies to the old pool. At that time, the developer indicated that it was not possible to confirm that the deficiency had been exploited.

Mining layout provides support

In August, Cyberpunk Technologies, supported by Winklevoss, started a Zcash mining operation. The company estimates that it already accounts for about 18 per cent of the total network.

The company currently holds approximately 323,394 ZECs, estimated at approximately $268 million in paper prices, and plans to continue to increase, with a target of 5 per cent of the supply in circulation.