ZEC is trading near $570, up about 122% over the past month and more than 1,500% in the past year, as privacy-focused cryptocurrencies have gained traction.
The move follows a broader reassessment of Zcash’s role in crypto privacy. Zcash works as an encrypted-money network, with CoinDesk Research citing 20% to 25% of circulating ZEC held in encrypted addresses and about 30% of transactions involving the shielded pool. Grayscale has said ZEC’s upside is tied to a repricing of financial privacy in an AI-driven world.
Jain’s comments came alongside a broader push to move privacy beyond standalone privacy coins. Vibhu Norby, chief product officer at the Solana Foundation, said Solana builders are working on a privacy product to preserve DeFi composability.
Solana already has confidential-transfer token infrastructure. However, its documentation notes that the ZK ElGamal program powering confidential token transactions is currently disabled on both mainnet and devnet during a security audit, rendering the confidential-transfer extension unavailable.
Zcash has also begun to cross into the Solana decentralised finance ecosystem. Zenrock’s wrapped ZEC product on Solana crossed $15 million in volume late last year, linking Zcash privacy demand with Solana trading activity.
The panel framed privacy as a market-structure issue, not just a cypherpunk concern. Jain said public wallets expose funds and trades to surveillance and front-running. Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, said visible DeFi positions can be targeted and hunted in public markets.