Grayscale Pushes Zcash (ZEC) to $180, but New ATH Isn’t Realistic Just Yet

Key Notes

• Zcash gained 36% in 24 hours following bullish news from Grayscale.
• ZEC maximalists expect the $5,000 price point.
• The privacy-focused asset recorded $2 million in short liquidations.

Increased institutional interest and community hype have pushed Zcash ZEC $172.5 24h volatility: 24.4% Market cap: $2.81 B Vol. 24h: $742.79 M , which is a privacy-focused crypto asset, to levels not seen since early 2022.

The Grayscale Zcash Trust, which was publicly incepted in October 2021, started to see a gradual rise this year, from $4.9 to $13.8 over the past 30 days.

Moreover, the investment product has a market cap of $66 million, with 4.76 million shares sold so far, according to data from Investing.com. The fund recorded a 340% rally over the past six months.

ZEC also gained 36% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $180.7 at the time of writing. Its market cap reached $2.93 billion with a daily trading volume of roughly $750 million.

The price hike also triggered $2 million in short liquidations for ZEC futures traders, according to CoinGlass data. This added to the positivity around the token.

ZEC New All-Time High Next?

ZEC, which was launched in October 2016, saw a sharp plunge from its all-time high of $5,941. The privacy coin is still 97% down from its peak.

With the recent price surge, the Zcash community has been hinting at expectations of a $5,000 price target.

Zcash *WILL HIT* $5000.

— -float-ᙇ (@floatxbt) October 9, 2025

While the ZEC maximalists remain bullish, the conditions for a new ATH are much different now than in 2016. Zcash had a market cap of only $5.5 million then.

Currently, ZEC has a circulating supply of 16.25 million coins. To reach the $5,000 mark, it would need a market value of $81.25 billion, and to break the previous ATH, Zcash must have a market cap of $96.54 billion.

These targets appear to be unrealistic, with just the hype from the community and the Grayscale investment product.

Zcash would need far more utility and interest from both retail and institutional investors to reach this target. A realistic price target of $800 to $1,000 would look more suitable for ZEC due to the volatile market conditions.

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