Grayscale Files to Launch Zcash ETF After Privacy Coin's 1,000% Price Surge – Decrypt

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments has jumped on the Zcash hype by filing for an exchange-traded fund that would give investors exposure to the privacy coin. 

A Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Grayscale wants to convert its Grayscale Zcash Trust into an ETF. If approved, it would be the first ETF giving investors exposure to the coin. 

Zcash enables users to send and receive money in private by encrypting transaction information using zero-knowledge proofs—a cryptographic method that proves something is known without revealing the known information directly. 

The coin’s value has shot up by nearly 1,000% over the past year as crypto bigwigs have pumped the asset’s use cases on social media. 

“Although Zcash is similar to Bitcoin, there are several key differences between the Zcash Network and the Bitcoin network,” Grayscale said in its filing. “The fundamental difference between Bitcoin and Zcash is that Zcash offers selective privacy-preserving features.”

Zcash started rallying in September amid concerns about the government’s ability to track Bitcoin users due to BTC’s transparent nature. Crypto entrepreneurs like Naval Ravikant and Arthur Hayes wrote posts on X about how useful the coin was, and it has continued to gain in recent weeks even as Bitcoin fell.

Grayscale has converted a number of its trusts into ETFs. As trusts, the investment vehicles made it harder for investors to redeem shares. ETFs are products where investors can quickly cash out. 

Grayscale previously converted its Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts into spot ETFs earlier this year following SEC approval of each respective product in the U.S. The funds have been wildly successful. 

The firm also has Solana, Dogecoin, and XRP ETFs on the market now. 

Zcash (ZEC) was recently trading for nearly $502 per coin, unmoved over a 24-hour period, CoinGecko data shows. Over the past 30 days, the asset has risen by nearly 40%. The coin is still well below its 2016 record of $3,192, though.