I’m back from my Netherlands trip. Family visited, stroopwafels consumed, and now it’s time to lock in.
Because while I was away, the market didn’t wait. Zcash broke $1,200, entered the top 10, and flipped one of the strongest coins of this cycle in the process.
Here’s what September and October look like on AirdropAlert: more trading content on the big coins, plus the meme plays. There’s a lot of action in that corner right now, and we’ll be covering it. We already kicked things off with our Ethena FalconX breakdown, and this post keeps the momentum going.
Let’s get into ZEC.
ZEC Flips HYPE for the Ninth Spot
Zcash broke through $1,200 on Sunday and pushed to an intraday peak of $1,249. That’s its highest price in almost a decade.
The move lifted ZEC’s market cap to around $20.4 billion. With that number, ZEC flips HYPE and takes the ninth spot among all crypto assets.
Let that sink in for a second. A privacy coin from 2016 just displaced the token behind Hyperliquid, one of the strongest performers of this entire cycle. HYPE isn’t collapsing or anything close to it. It’s simply consolidating around the $78–80 support zone while ZEC refuses to slow down. If you’re accumulating in that zone, our HYPE DCA strategy covers exactly how we approach it.
Zooming out makes it wilder. ZEC is up over 2,300% in the past year. Since its July 2024 low of $16, the coin has gained roughly 7,400%. Those are memecoin numbers on a ten-year-old asset.
Since Our Last Update: +50%
When we covered the Grayscale Zcash ETF filing in August, ZEC traded around $800. It has added another 50% since.
The ETF is no longer a rumor either. Grayscale listed it on NYSE Arca in late August, giving US investors regulated exposure without touching a shielded wallet. That matters for a coin most exchanges spent years delisting.
The bigger picture hasn’t changed from our privacy coins outlook earlier this year. Surveillance keeps expanding, regulations keep tightening, and the market keeps repricing the one thing Bitcoin can’t offer: transaction privacy. Zcash owns that narrative right now, and volume across the whole privacy sector is rising with it.
Key Levels I’m Watching
The trend is clearly up, but nothing goes vertical forever. Around $24 million in leveraged positions got liquidated in the past day alone, so volatility is elevated.
Here’s my simple map:
$1,100 is the line that matters. As long as buyers defend it, they stay in control and another push above $1,220–1,250 is on the table. Losing that level opens the door to deeper profit-taking, with $890 as the next major zone where buyers previously broke through.
One more thing worth remembering: the all-time high from October 2016 sits near $3,190. Even after this monster run, ZEC still trades far below its peak. That cuts both ways — room to run, but also proof this coin can retrace brutally.
My Position
ZEC has been one of my five buys on the crypto shopping list since the summer, and I’ve been adding through DCA rather than market-buying strength.
This move is exactly why I run two DCA strategies at the same time: one price-based, one time-based. If I had only kept waiting for a bottom, maybe I would have missed this entire move completely. My low price targets might simply never hit, and that’s the risk nobody talks about with limit-order stacking.
The time-based side fixed that. I’ve had 7 DCA buys during this upswing. It’s still only a small piece of my portfolio, but at least I’m positioned!
I’m not chasing this candle, though. Buying a parabolic move after a 50% monthly run is how you become exit liquidity, and I’ve been stopped out on ZEC before by respecting my own rules too late. The position stays, and if we get a healthy pullback toward support, the price-based buys are waiting there.
A Cat Is Airdropping ZEC
Now for the fun part, and a little preview of the meme coverage I promised.
Tokenized stock airdrops have been the trending play lately. But a new wave is forming around the Zcash ecosystem, and the strangest example is a cat memecoin that airdrops actual ZEC to its holders. The ticker is ZCAT.
The short version: every transfer gets taxed 3%, the tax gets converted into ZEC, and holders receive it automatically. No staking, no claiming. Nearly $2.8 million in ZEC has already been paid out across more than 470,000 payouts, and at the current pace it’s distributing ZEC faster than miners produce it.
Is it sustainable? That’s exactly the question we’ll dig into. Full breakdown coming on the blog in a few days, so keep an eye out.
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Final Words
ZEC flipping HYPE is one of those milestones that tells you where the market’s attention is. Privacy went from delisted to top 10, and the ETF made it investable for people who will never touch a shielded address.
My plan stays boring: hold the DCA position, watch $1,100, and let the chart decide the next move. The moment things change, you’ll read it here first.
See you in the next one.
FAQ
Why did ZEC flip HYPE?
Zcash’s market cap climbed to roughly $20.4 billion after breaking $1,200, pushing it past Hyperliquid’s HYPE token into the ninth spot by market cap. HYPE has been consolidating near $78–80 while ZEC kept rallying.
Is this a new all-time high for Zcash?
No. ZEC’s all-time high sits near $3,190 from October 2016. The current price is its highest in almost a decade, but still well below the peak.
What is driving the Zcash rally?
The main drivers are the live Grayscale ETF on NYSE Arca, growing demand for financial privacy, and strong momentum across the entire privacy coin sector.
What is the cat memecoin that airdrops ZEC?
It’s a new Solana memecoin that taxes every transfer 3% and converts the proceeds into ZEC, which gets airdropped straight to holders. We’re publishing a full breakdown on it in a few days.
Credit: Source link
