TL;DR
- Zcash surpasses $500 for the first time since 2018, driven by influential supporters and renewed interest in privacy.
- The Zcash Foundation denied funding any promotional campaign, attributing the surge to organic momentum fueled by growing distrust of state control.
- Analysts and industry figures compare the current enthusiasm to Bitcoin’s early years.
Zcash is experiencing a comeback that few anticipated. The privacy-focused protocol pushed its token ZEC above $500 for the first time since 2018, fueled by a wave of support from influential figures and a broader revival of interest in financial privacy within the crypto ecosystem.
Among its most active advocates are Arthur Hayes, Naval Ravikant, Mert Mumtaz, Ansem, and Threadguy, who have spent months highlighting Zcash’s advantages as a tool for privacy and user sovereignty. Their commentary created a viral narrative on social media, driving demand and producing returns that outperformed the broader altcoin market.
The phenomenon sparked suspicions of a coordinated marketing campaign, but the Zcash Foundation denied any involvement. Its newly appointed executive director, Alex Bornstein, stated that the organization did not pay or encourage anyone to promote the token. He explained that the renewed interest in the protocol reflects an organic trend rooted in growing public distrust of government oversight and financial surveillance.
Zcash Is Reclaiming the Core Values of Free Money
Bornstein argued that the community is rediscovering Zcash’s potential as a privacy-preserving tool—a value he considers increasingly essential in the digital economy. “There’s a powerful narrative behind this. People are starting to understand what ZEC can really achieve,” he said in an interview on Chain Reaction.
Other voices, such as Ran Neuner, host of the Crypto Banter channel, compared the current moment to Bitcoin’s early years. According to Neuner, the enthusiasm around Zcash recalls the cypherpunk movement that gave birth to cryptocurrencies: a community of technologists and libertarians united by the idea of creating censorship-resistant digital money. He argued that unlike Bitcoin, whose transparency compromises user privacy, ZEC restores that founding principle.
The resurgence of Zcash represents a broader shift in market perception: privacy is no longer viewed as a regulatory obstacle but as a necessary condition for true digital autonomy
