According to @santimentfeed, Zcash ZEC surged roughly 15x beginning in October and, despite a retrace, remains about 969 percent higher over the four months since @Xfinancebull’s post, source: @santimentfeed on X, Jan 9, 2026. KOLs_Tracker noted ZEC cooled after a meteoric run but showed sustained strength versus BTC over recent months, underscoring the timing of the early bullish call, source: KOLs_Tracker on X as cited by @santimentfeed, Jan 9, 2026. Santiment highlighted its Sanitizer leaderboard to objectively measure influencer accuracy, offering traders a data-backed way to validate KOL signals before positioning in ZEC and privacy coins, source: @santimentfeed on X, Jan 9, 2026.

According to @santimentfeed, social interest in Bitcoin’s 17th Birthday and the Zcash development team has surged during a wild, bullish week, based on data scraped from X, Reddit, Telegram, and other platforms via the Alpha Narratives dashboard; source: Santiment @santimentfeed, Jan 9, 2026. Santiment reports that Venezuelan oil, gold and silver prices, and broad altcoin surges are also among the most-discussed narratives currently influencing trader sensitivity; source: Santiment Alpha Narratives dashboard, Jan 9, 2026. Santiment states traders can use the free Alpha Narratives dashboard to identify which news stories are driving cryptocurrency markets and prioritize monitoring BTC and ZEC where narrative momentum is strongest; source: Santiment @santimentfeed, Jan 9, 2026.

According to CoinMarketCap, this week’s top 10 gainers were Canton Network (+41.97%), 0G (+29.14%), Decred (+22.94%), Plasma (+22.25%), Neo (+21.49%), Stable (+20.84%), Electric Coin Co (Zcash) (+18.98%), Horizen (+18.10%), Prom (+17.25%), and Monad (+15.63%) (source: CoinMarketCap on X, Dec 29, 2025). According to CoinMarketCap’s reported weekly changes, these double-digit movers are prime momentum watchlist candidates for breakout continuation and potential mean-reversion pullbacks into prior weekly ranges, which traders often time using previous weekly highs/lows and volume clusters (source: CoinMarketCap on X, Dec 29, 2025). According to CoinMarketCap, traders seeking higher liquidity and exchange coverage can prioritize established names from the list such as Decred (DCR), Neo (NEO), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN), and Prom (PROM) when evaluating entries, risk limits, and position sizing (source: CoinMarketCap listings and the Dec 29, 2025 post).

According to @CryptoKing_2020, Beldex (BDX) is presented as a full privacy ecosystem with privacy on by default across transactions, messaging, browsing, and identity, positioning it as a comprehensive privacy-coin play for users and traders, source: @CryptoKing_2020. The author states that Beldex utilizes fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), multi-layer cryptography, and cross-chain access, framing it as a more complete and practical solution than Zcash (ZEC), source: @CryptoKing_2020. The post urges users who missed Zcash early not to miss Beldex, signaling an early-opportunity narrative around BDX relative to ZEC, source: @CryptoKing_2020.

According to @CryptoMichNL, Zcash (ZEC) has rebounded 44% from a key region, highlighting a strong support reaction relevant for long setups; source: @CryptoMichNL on X, Dec 8, 2025. He states this area is reasonable for accumulation because ZEC is over 50% from the lows he references; source: @CryptoMichNL on X, Dec 8, 2025. He adds that if the broader market trend turns, ZEC could regain momentum, supporting a continuation bias for traders monitoring trend reversal signals; source: @CryptoMichNL on X, Dec 8, 2025.

According to @litecoin, daily transactions at 7:30 pm MT on Dec 6, 2025 totaled 262,871, with LTC at 192,975 (73.5 percent), BCH at 18,317 (6.9 percent), DASH at 23,219 (8.9 percent), DOGE at 23,819 (9.0 percent), and ZEC at 4,451 (1.7 percent), and the four non-LTC chains combined equaled 36.17 percent of LTC’s transactions, source: @litecoin; data: Bitinfocharts. Daily combined market cap was 46,637,935,724 dollars, with LTC at 6,244,300,498 dollars (13.4 percent), BCH at 11,686,731,870 dollars (25.0 percent), DASH at 592,994,016 dollars (1.3 percent), DOGE at 22,608,368,958 dollars (48.5 percent), and ZEC at 5,505,540,382 dollars (11.8 percent), and LTC equaled 15.45 percent of the other four combined market caps, source: @litecoin; data: Bitinfocharts. Based on these figures, estimated daily transactions per 1 billion dollars of market cap are LTC ~30.9k, DASH ~39.1k, BCH ~1.57k, DOGE ~1.05k, and ZEC ~0.81k, indicating higher on-chain utilization for LTC and DASH relative to peers, source: @litecoin; data: Bitinfocharts. LTC’s activity-to-valuation ratio (transaction-share divided by market-cap-share) is ~5.49x (73.5 divided by 13.4), versus DASH ~6.85x, BCH ~0.28x, DOGE ~0.19x, and ZEC ~0.14x, offering traders a factual benchmark to compare relative on-chain intensity across large-cap payment coins, source: @litecoin; data: Bitinfocharts.

According to @VitalikButerin, Zcash should resist token voting because he considers token voting worse than the project’s status quo and warns that privacy would erode under median token holder preferences, source: Vitalik Buterin on X, 2025-11-30, twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1995063062165135675. Zcash’s current governance relies on the Zcash Improvement Proposal process and the Zcash Foundation’s Community Advisory Panel for sentiment polling rather than token-weighted on-chain voting, so any move toward token voting would surface via ZIP drafts and ZF announcements, source: Zcash Foundation governance page zfnd.org/governance and Zcash Improvement Proposals site zips.z.cash. For traders, this identifies governance design as a concrete catalyst path to watch for ZEC, with relevant proposals and ballots documented in ZIPs and CAP records, source: zfnd.org/governance and zips.z.cash.

According to @milesdeutscher, Nic Carter highlights a sooner-than-expected quantum threat to Bitcoin (BTC). source: https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1993974587936395644 https://x.com/nic_carter/status/1993753509372866587 He expects the quantum-security narrative to take off and has invested in Naoris Protocol as his current quantum-infra exposure. source: https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1993974587936395644 He also notes Zcash (ZEC) is more quantum-proof than BTC, though not fully. source: https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1993974587936395644

According to Eric Balchunas, Zcash (ZEC) carries third-party candidate dynamics and backing it instead of consolidating into the main asset could split the vote and bring major consequences for BTC at a crucial time, signaling a preference for capital concentration in Bitcoin over dispersion to privacy coins (source: Eric Balchunas on X on Nov 22, 2025). For traders, this frames fragmentation risk as a near-term headwind to Bitcoin momentum and suggests prioritizing BTC exposure over ZEC during key market inflection points identified by the author (source: Eric Balchunas on X on Nov 22, 2025).

According to @Flavio_leMec, the legality of on-chain privacy is in focus for builders and traders alike, raising immediate compliance and liquidity questions for privacy tools and tokens, including ZEC and XMR, and for exchanges serving U.S., EU, and UK users, source: @Flavio_leMec tweet on Nov 20, 2025. In the U.S., the Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash, making interactions with listed mixer addresses sanctionable for U.S. persons and heightening compliance risk for platforms, source: U.S. Treasury OFAC press release, Aug 8, 2022. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Tornado Cash founders with money laundering and sanctions violations, signaling criminal exposure for facilitation of illicit flows, source: U.S. Department of Justice press release, Aug 23, 2023. In the EU, the Transfer of Funds Regulation extends the Travel Rule to crypto-asset service providers, requiring originator and beneficiary data on transfers and pressuring venues to restrict assets and tools that cannot support compliance, source: European Parliament press release on tracing crypto transfers, April 20, 2023. In the UK, the FCA Travel Rule statement requires firms to collect and share beneficiary and originator data when sending or receiving crypto, similarly constraining privacy coins without selective disclosure, source: UK Financial Conduct Authority statement, Aug 17, 2023. FinCEN proposed designating convertible virtual currency mixing as a primary money laundering concern, increasing bank and exchange scrutiny on privacy tooling and flows, source: U.S. FinCEN notice of proposed rulemaking, Oct 19, 2023. Compliance-compatible privacy exists: Zcash supports viewing keys and selective disclosure that enable audits and reporting without public data leakage, which reduces delisting risk versus opaque mixers, source: Electric Coin Company Zcash documentation on viewing keys, official docs accessed 2024. OFAC’s sanctions compliance guidance for the virtual currency industry outlines screening, blocking, and reporting controls that privacy-focused services must integrate to operate lawfully, source: U.S. Treasury OFAC Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry, Oct 2021. Market outcomes illustrate the trading impact: Binance announced the delisting of XMR in February 2024 amid heightened compliance focus, which reduced centralized venue liquidity for Monero, source: Binance Announcement, Feb 6, 2024. OKX also removed multiple privacy coins in early 2024, reinforcing the pattern of reduced listings and market depth for assets lacking selective disclosure, source: OKX Support Notice, Dec 27, 2023 and Jan 2024 update. Dutch authorities secured a conviction related to Tornado Cash operations in 2024, underscoring European enforcement posture toward opaque mixers and further elevating compliance risk premiums, source: District Court of ’s-Hertogenbosch judgment reported by the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, May 2024. Taken together, on-chain privacy is possible without breaking the law when protocols implement sanctions screening, selective disclosure, and Travel Rule data transmission, but opaque mixing tools face sustained enforcement and delisting risk that can fragment liquidity and widen spreads for related tokens, source: OFAC 2021 guidance; EU TFR 2023; FCA 2023; FinCEN 2023.

According to @santimentfeed, the total crypto market cap fell 13.5% over the past week, with Bitcoin (BTC) threatening to drop below 90K for the first time in 7 months, signaling broad-based pressure on large caps. According to @santimentfeed, pockets of relative strength included Zcash (ZEC) up 7%, Monero (XMR) up 5%, and Aster up 10%, while most large coins inflicted major trader pain.

According to Kashif Raza, the post raises whether a Bitcoin privacy upgrade could overlap with Zcash’s value proposition for traders. Source: X post by Kashif Raza on Nov 16, 2025. Bitcoin currently has no activated protocol change that provides Zcash-like fully private on-chain transfers; Taproot (BIPs 340–342) improves script and key-path spending efficiency but does not hide sender identities or transaction amounts. Source: Bitcoin Core documentation and BIPs 340–342. Silent Payments is a Bitcoin proposal intended to enhance receiver privacy by enabling address reuse resistance without revealing links on-chain, but it remains a Draft BIP and is not activated on the Bitcoin network. Source: Bitcoin BIPs repository, BIP-352 Silent Payments. Zcash provides optional shielded transactions using zk-SNARKs through the Orchard pool and unified addresses, enabling transfer privacy for amounts and participants while preserving supply auditability. Source: Electric Coin Company technical documentation and Zcash Protocol Specification. Because no Bitcoin soft fork delivering Zcash-level on-chain privacy is currently activated, ZEC’s differentiated privacy utility remains intact at this time for market positioning. Source: Bitcoin BIPs repository status and Bitcoin Core release notes. For trading, monitor BIP status changes and Bitcoin-Dev mailing list discussions for any consensus progress on privacy features, alongside Zcash network updates from Electric Coin Company and Zcash Foundation that could affect ZEC/BTC relative performance and liquidity. Source: Bitcoin-Dev mailing list, Bitcoin BIPs repository, Electric Coin Company updates, and Zcash Foundation communications.

According to @RhythmicAnalyst, traders are debating whether Zcash (ZEC) could flip Bitcoin (BTC) by market capitalization. Historical rankings show BTC’s market value and exchange liquidity dwarf ZEC’s by orders of magnitude, reducing flippening odds without a structural shift, per CoinMarketCap historical data and Kaiko order-book liquidity datasets. For trading signals, monitor the ZEC/BTC ratio, spot depth, and derivatives open interest on major venues such as Binance and OKX, per exchange futures dashboards and Kaiko liquidity reports. Also track on-chain activity and security—active addresses, transaction volume, fees, and hash rate—for both networks, per Glassnode (BTC) analytics and Electric Coin Company and Zcash explorer statistics. Current readings in the cited sources do not indicate ZEC approaching BTC on these metrics, while BTC remains the primary liquidity and pricing benchmark, per the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and Bitwise crypto index methodology.

According to @CryptoMichNL, privacy is a leading market narrative, with ZEC and DASH showing strong recent returns and momentum that traders are tracking for opportunities, source: @CryptoMichNL on X, Nov 13, 2025. The same source highlights a discussion with @F_ZK_Now on privacy and Midnight, a protocol within the ADA ecosystem, underscoring ADA-linked privacy developments for traders to monitor, source: @CryptoMichNL on X, Nov 13, 2025; video link youtu.be/lGSuOeVmKUE.

According to @Trader_XO, Zcash (ZEC) currently presents strong conditions for short setups alongside favorable zones to long for mean-reversion trades, source: @Trader_XO on X, Nov 11, 2025. The trader urges focusing on the market in front of participants and treating ZEC as a two-way trading instrument rather than dismissing the asset, source: @Trader_XO on X, Nov 11, 2025. He also states that Monero (XMR) offers stronger privacy than Zcash, a consideration that could influence allocation within privacy coins, source: @Trader_XO on X, Nov 11, 2025.

According to @KookCapitalLLC, Zcash (ZEC) is not private and wrapped versions on other networks such as Solana (SOL) are also not private, guiding privacy-coin traders away from ZEC and SOL-based wraps, source: @KookCapitalLLC. According to @KookCapitalLLC, the strategy is to own Monero (XMR) as the sector’s king and trade the derivatives for exposure and volatility, source: @KookCapitalLLC. According to @KookCapitalLLC, Monero is the only real privacy coin among major crypto assets, source: @KookCapitalLLC.

According to @boldleonidas, he publicly states he turned $700k into over $20m on Zcash (ZEC), implying roughly a 28x return, and says he bought the bottom when interest was low; he adds it is his biggest trade this year aside from $TRUMP (source: X post by @boldleonidas, Nov 8, 2025). He says his new video addresses whether ZEC has topped, how he built conviction, and how he executed the trade (source: X post by @boldleonidas, Nov 8, 2025). He also says he is eyeing the next generational trade, indicating the video outlines forward-looking criteria he monitors for large asymmetry setups (source: X post by @boldleonidas, Nov 8, 2025).

According to BitMEX Research, Zcash (ZEC) has rallied recently. According to BitMEX Research, the all-time high in BTC terms was about 3,300 BTC per ZEC, which is roughly $340,000,000 per coin at today’s BTC price, highlighting a large gap from current market levels according to BitMEX Research.

According to the source, Bittensor (TAO) and Zcash (ZEC) led an altcoin rebound while BNB’s rally cooled, signaling shifting momentum within major altcoins (source: X post dated Oct 20, 2025 linking to the headline).

According to @MilkRoadDaily, the past 24 hours saw broad crypto declines with 13 of 14 listed assets down, led by Litecoin (LTC) at -25.62% and Dogecoin (DOGE) at -22.91%, while Zcash (ZEC) was the only gainer at +15.57% (source: @MilkRoadDaily). According to @MilkRoadDaily, Bitcoin (BTC) fell -7.57% and Ethereum (ETH) dropped -11.55%, with ETH underperforming BTC by 3.98 percentage points (source: @MilkRoadDaily). According to @MilkRoadDaily, the median decline among the losers was -16.71% and the mean decline was -15.56% based on the reported returns (source: @MilkRoadDaily). According to @MilkRoadDaily, additional notable moves included Solana (SOL) -16.71%, XRP -12.14%, BNB -10.98%, Tron (TRX) -4.86%, Cardano (ADA) -18.58%, Chainlink (LINK) -19.42%, SUI -21.64%, Avalanche (AVAX) -19.63%, and Hyperliquid -10.64% (source: @MilkRoadDaily).