Zcash jumps 48% past $800 to decade high as Grayscale advances spot ETF bid

ZEC climbed 48% past $800 on Aug. 22. That is its highest level since 2016, CoinDesk reported. The move cleared the token’s January 2018 peak. Futures volume ran into the billions of dollars.

The rally arrived alongside Grayscale filing its fifth amended S-3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The filing advances plans to convert the firm’s Zcash Trust into a spot ETF. If approved, it would be the first spot Zcash ETF in the country.

The amended filing lays out the structure. The fund, renamed “The Zcash ETF,” would list on NYSE Arca under ticker ZCH. Sponsor fee: 2.5% annually. Bank of New York Mellon would serve as transfer agent. Coinbase Custody Trust Company would hold the assets, according to The Block.

Grayscale’s Zcash Trust has operated since 2017. It held over $260 million in assets under management as of Friday. In a separate amendment earlier in the week, the firm disclosed that a Digital Currency Group subsidiary was in discussions to contribute roughly 200,000 ZEC to the fund.

James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a post on X on Friday that the filing suggests Grayscale is “getting closer and closer to converting this thing into an ETF.”

The price surge extended well past the regulatory catalyst. Futures volume hit billions of dollars as ZEC broke above its 2018 high, CoinDesk reported. The token has not traded above $800 since 2016, the year the network launched.

That run revived “next bitcoin” chatter around the privacy-focused token. It ranks as the 12th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, per The Block’s data. Zcash was created in 2016 and built around shielded transactions.

The framing, regulatory filing meets narrative bid, leaves out the positioning. A filing amendment is not approval. The SEC has not publicly signaled a decision timeline. What the document does not address: whether regulators have engaged substantively on the conversion, or whether the proposed DCG contribution of 200,000 ZEC will close.

Grayscale has launched more than a dozen crypto ETFs, including funds tracking bitcoin, ether, dogecoin, and XRP. The Zcash product would push that roster into the privacy-coin category. U.S. regulators have approached that space with caution.

Traders, as ever, disagree. The futures volume spike points to geared-up buyers front-running a decision that could still be months away.