ZEC (Zcash) increased by 6.57% in the last 24 hours, with a market capitalization of approximately $6.638 billion.

Gate News Bot Message, January 12th, according to CoinMarketCap data, as of press time, ZEC (Zcash) is trading at $402.74, up 6.57% in the past 24 hours, with a high of $526.36 and a low of $364.32. The 24-hour trading volume reached $569 million. The current market capitalization is approximately $6.638 billion, an increase of $409 million compared to yesterday.

Important recent news about ZEC:

1️⃣ Governance risks and recovery signals brought by core development team restructuring
Electric Coin Company (ECC) members collectively resigned on January 8th due to serious disagreements with the Bootstrap board over mission direction, and subsequently established a new company to continue Zcash technology development. This event initially caused market panic, with ZEC dropping over 15%. However, the original ECC team quickly announced the launch of the new Zcash wallet cashZ and emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself is unaffected by governance changes. This continuity measure helped stabilize market expectations to some extent. Although development activity has fallen to the lowest level since November 2021, the team’s ongoing commitment to privacy technology provides support for ZEC’s medium- to long-term prospects.

2️⃣ Shifts in capital allocation amid restructuring of the privacy coin landscape
As uncertainty around the Zcash core team became apparent, the privacy coin sector experienced clear differentiation. Monero (XMR), due to its higher decentralization, more mature privacy mechanisms, and lack of governance crises, has regained its position as the highest market cap privacy cryptocurrency. On-chain data shows that Zcash’s Chaikin capital flow indicator turned negative, reflecting ongoing net outflows, while Monero’s similar indicator rose rapidly. During the period when ZEC declined about 16%, XMR instead increased by approximately 5%. Although this internal capital rotation poses short-term pressure on ZEC, it also indicates that investor demand for privacy assets overall has not completely diminished.

3️⃣ Complex landscape of large on-chain activities and leveraged trading battles
On-chain data shows intense bullish and bearish battles. Large holders transferred 74,002 ZEC (worth about $35.75 million) to CEX on January 9th, indicating liquidity preparation. Meanwhile, the largest bullish whale aggressively increased positions when ZEC fell near $449, adding 2,486 ZEC within 10 minutes, with a total increase of 9,871 ZEC over 20 hours, currently holding a $12.35 million long position with 10x leverage. Simultaneously, bearish forces are also increasing, with “Altcoin Air Force” and shorting whales maintaining shorts of $2.08 million and 3,697 ZEC at 2x leverage, respectively. Leverage positions repeatedly liquidated in the $485-$520 range, consuming momentum from both sides, but also reflecting that the market’s mid-term valuation consensus for ZEC is still forming.

4️⃣ Institutional positioning and privacy narrative supporting fundamentals
Despite the short-term sentiment impact from governance crisis, institutional positioning remains relatively stable. Arthur Hayes’s Maelstrom established a large Zcash position in Q3 2025, making ZEC the second-largest liquid asset in its portfolio after Bitcoin. Dragonfly partner Haseeb compared Zcash to BitTorrent, believing its “innocent origins” and “cypherpunk spirit” have helped it survive industry turbulence. Grayscale continues to reinforce Zcash’s institutional presence through recent rebalancing and spot ETF strategies. Industry views suggest that privacy will become a key differentiator in blockchain competition by 2026, and this narrative framework provides medium-term support for ZEC.

This message is not investment advice; please be aware of market volatility risks.