The cryptocurrency market is once again showing strength, and this time the spotlight is on Zcash (ZEC). Over the past 24 hours, the asset's price surged by 34%, reaching $857 — the best performance among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. This rally was made possible by a significant move from Grayscale Investments, which filed a fifth amendment to its application to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for Zcash with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Application details: fee and new name
In the previous, fourth version of the document, filed on Tuesday, Grayscale left two key questions unanswered: the fee amount and the fund's name. The fifth amendment closed these gaps. The management company set a daily fee of 2.5% of the trust's net asset value. The product itself will be renamed The Zcash ETF, and its shares are planned to be traded on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker ZCSH.
The documentation emphasizes that although purchasing fund shares is not a direct investment in ZEC, the securities are designed to give investors access to the token's price in a simple and relatively inexpensive way. Asset custody will be provided by Coinbase Custody Trust Company, while Bank of New York Mellon has taken on the roles of transfer agent and administrator.
Recovery after the crisis
The current growth is an impressive recovery after the June crash, when security experts identified a vulnerability in one of Zcash's shielded pools. At that time, the price of ZEC lost about half of its value. However, an emergency update resolved the issue, and the asset is now confidently moving upward.
On Saturday, ZEC exceeded the $800 mark for the first time since January 2018, reaching an intraday high of $857, before correcting to $784. For comparison, the historical peak was recorded in October 2016 at $3,191, so the potential for further growth remains.
My analysis: Filing the fifth amendment to the application is a clear signal that Grayscale is serious and aims to complete the process of converting the trust into a full-fledged ETF. If the SEC approves the product, it will become the first exchange-traded fund in the U.S. to directly track the price of Zcash, which could attract institutional capital to this privacy asset. However, one should not forget about volatility: even after such a surge, ZEC is trading significantly below its historical highs, and the market will need time to consolidate at new levels.