Cryptocurrency investors disillusioned by bitcoin are reportedly flocking to a new token: Zcash.
That’s according to a report Thursday (May 14) from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which said this shift to the privacy-focused Zcash comes as bitcoin enthusiasts worry that the coin no longer offers them the privacy they seek.
Zcash, on the other hand, reminds them of the early days of crypto, when anonymity was touted as a path to personal freedom.
“It feels like bitcoin circa 2013,” said Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Grayscale Investments, which created the first publicly traded bitcoin fund.
DCG earlier this year made Zcash one of its largest holdings, a source close to the matter told the WSJ. Grayscale told regulators last year that it planned to convert its Zcash trust into an exchange-traded fund, making it more easily accessible to everyday investors. This move helped fuel a surge in the token’s price.
The price of Zcash is up around 50% in the last month and 1,140% over the past year. Bitcoin has risen 8% in the past month, and fallen 24% in the last year.
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Zcash is just a sliver of the trillion-dollar size of bitcoin, at $8.9 billion. Smaller cryptos have a history of surging before imploding, a reason for concern, the WSJ added.
Another potential worry is around the coin’s privacy features, the report added. Proponents say Zcoin can combat authoritarian governments that use financial surveillance to find dissidents. Authorities argue that terrorists and criminals could use privacy coins to escape sanctions and commit crimes.
In related news, PYMNTS wrote last month that privacy issues have helped prevent wider adoption of stablecoins by a corporate world that thrives on the “controlled disclosure” that surrounds transactions.
“Stablecoins invert that model. They offer settlement speed and global reach, but at the cost of exposing transactional data to a public audience,” the report said. “On public blockchain rails, large stablecoin movements are immediately visible. Market participants monitor flows in real time, using them as signals to anticipate trades, front-run positions or adjust pricing. This creates a feedback loop where visibility increases slippage, which in turn discourages large transactions.”
This leads to a paradox, PYMNTS added. Although stablecoins promise deep, global liquidity, their transparency discourages the actors and institutions who could offer it at scale.
“Instead, liquidity remains concentrated in crypto-native venues, optimized for speed and speculation rather than stability and discretion,” the report said.