September 29, 2026
Zcash—a Bitcoin-like digital currency with additional privacy features—has appreciated sharply over the last year, rising from about $60 per token to roughly $1,500 today.1 Despite the large gain, we do not think the token has reached any kind of valuation ceiling. Rather, the magnitude of the rise can be seen as justified, as it reflects a low starting point and Zcash’s large addressable market, in our view.
Zcash (ZEC) and Bitcoin (BTC) are both members of the Currencies Crypto Sector—the blockchains focused on the digital currency use case. Bitcoin is the king of the category, but there are 10 other qualifying tokens including ZEC, XRP, LTC, and others.
On a market capitalization basis, ZEC was valued at less than 0.1% of BTC at this time last year and today is worth ~1.5% of BTC. This is a substantial change, but not extreme in the context of the Currencies Crypto Sector (Exhibit 1). For context, XRP is currently valued at nearly 6% of BTC’s market cap. And during the 2017-18 market cycle, four different cryptocurrencies—XRP, BCH, LTC, and DASH—reached at least 3% of BTC’s market cap. (For an in-depth view of the sector, check out our Grayscale Institute class on Digital Currencies.)
Demand for privacy-preserving technologies will continue to grow, in our view. If Zcash continues to offer the most effective privacy features among competing cryptocurrencies, we think it can capture additional market share.
Key Takeaway: Zcash has appreciated sharply, but history shows there is room for more competition among cryptocurrencies. We think Zcash can continue to capture market share.
Exhibit 1: Zcash has continued to capture higher market share
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