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So let’s get this straight. Zcash, a coin I’m pretty sure was cryogenically frozen back in... So let’s get this straight. Zcash, a coin I’m pretty sure was cryogenically frozen back in 2017, is suddenly the hottest thing on the block. It’s up over 380% in a month, blasting past its 2021 peak, and every influencer with a Robinhood account is screaming about a "privacy revival."
Give me a break.
I’ve been watching this space long enough to know a narrative-driven pump when I see one. You can almost smell the coordinated Telegram channels and the freshly printed talking points. We’re watching a ghost from crypto’s past get dressed up in a fancy new suit, and everyone’s pretending they don’t see the bones underneath. This ain't a comeback story; it’s a séance.
The Hype Train's Running on Fumes
Every crypto rally needs a good story, and Zcash’s is a classic. It’s a "perfect storm," they say, with headlines proclaiming that Zcash Surpasses 2021 Peak as Traders Bet on Privacy Revival. You have BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes throwing out a ridiculous $10,000 price target, which is the modern-day equivalent of a priest blessing the troops before they run headfirst into machine-gun fire. You have other big names like Naval Ravikanth and Mert Mumtaz nodding along, giving the whole thing a veneer of legitimacy.
Then Grayscale steps in, offering a way for "eligible investors"—read: people with more money than sense—to get exposure without actually having to touch the stuff. It's the perfect recipe for a speculative frenzy.
The narrative they’re selling is that in our age of digital surveillance, privacy is making a comeback. People are supposedly waking up and demanding financial sovereignty. It sounds great, doesn't it? It’s a noble, cypherpunk ideal. But does anyone really believe the thousands of people aping into ZEC on their iPhones are doing it for the philosophy? Are they meticulously crafting shielded transactions to protect their financial data from the prying eyes of the state?
Or are they just staring at the green candle on their screen, heart pounding, hoping to dump their bags on some greater fool before the whole thing collapses? Let's be real. The "privacy narrative" is just convenient marketing copy for a momentum trade.
A Halving That Isn't Happening and Other Fairy Tales
Here’s where the story gets truly pathetic. A huge chunk of this rally is apparently being fueled by excitement over an upcoming "halving" in November. Traders are piling in, expecting the supply shock to send the price to the moon.
There’s just one tiny problem: it’s not happening.
The last Zcash halving was in November 2024. The next one isn’t until 2028. This is a bad rumor. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm dumpster fire of misinformation driving a multi-billion dollar market cap. People are gambling fortunes on an event they couldn’t be bothered to spend five seconds Googling. It’s the perfect metaphor for the entire crypto space right now: all narrative, zero due diligence.
This is what happens when an asset has no real-world use case. It becomes a blank canvas for any story people want to project onto it. Mert Mumtaz calls it "encrypted Bitcoin." That sounds cool, I guess. He says, "Crypto without privacy isn't crypto." And I say, "A token without users is just a few lines of code."
I’m so tired of this. Every bull cycle, we dust off the same old projects and invent new reasons why this time it’s different. It’s just like Hollywood rebooting Spider-Man for the fourth time and expecting us to be excited. We’ve seen this movie before, and it ends with a lot of people losing their shirts.
The Elephant in the Room
Beyond the fake halving and the influencer-driven hype, there's a fundamental, unfixable flaw with Zcash: its privacy is optional. And because it's slightly inconvenient, most people don't even use it.
Think about that. It’s a privacy coin whose main feature is largely ignored by its own users. Data shows a "limited increase in shielded transactions." It’s like buying a submarine and then only using it as a canoe because opening the hatch is too much work. What is the point?
And even if you do use the privacy features, good luck doing anything with your coins. Regulators despise privacy assets. Exchanges have been delisting ZEC for years because they’re terrified of being accused of facilitating money laundering. So you have this theoretically untraceable digital cash that you can’t cash out or spend anywhere that matters. It’s a paradox.
Compared to something like Ethereum, which, for all its faults, is a bustling digital economy with billions locked in DeFi and real-world assets, Zcash has… what, exactly? An ideology? A dwindling base of developers? Offcourse, you have instituional investors who won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. They want us to believe this is a renaissance, but when you look under the hood, the engine is cold and the seats are empty. It's a stark contrast that leads many to ask the question, Better Cryptocurrency Buy: Ethereum vs. Zcash?
Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one. Maybe a multi-billion dollar asset propped up by a factual error and a vague philosophy is the future of finance.
So We're Doing This Again?
Look, I’m not saying privacy doesn’t matter. But this Zcash rally isn't about privacy. It's a speculative ghost haunting the machine, animated by hype, misinformation, and a desperate search for the next 100x pump. It’s a relic, a solution to a problem that most of its new "investors" don't have, and a feature they don't even use. When the story fades and the hot money moves on—and it always does—a lot of people are going to be left holding a very private, very empty bag. Don't say I didn't warn you.