Zcash (ZEC) cleared $1,000 for the first time in nearly a decade on Friday, The Block reported. The milestone caps a month-long surge that has added roughly 94% to the privacy coin’s price and pushed its market cap toward $17 billion.
The token traded as high as $1,023 on Friday, according to The Block. Decrypt put the intraday peak at $1,029 on Binance before ZEC eased back to around $984. Either figure was enough to crush the short side. More than $34.5 million in short positions were force-closed on the break above $1,000. Total ZEC liquidations reached roughly $36.6 million, per CoinGlass data cited by Decrypt.
Two forces drove the rally. Grayscale’s ZCSH ETF, which launched Aug. 25 on NYSE Arca as the first U.S. fund to offer direct ZEC exposure, has pulled roughly $34.4 million in net inflows since its debut, per Grayscale data. Sept. 2 stood out: $12.6 million in a single session. On the macro side, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Thursday he would be “inclined to support” holding rates steady. That comment sent crypto-wide short liquidations above $415 million and trimmed September hike odds to 50.4% from 63.2%, Decrypt reported.
Miners followed the price upward. Zcash network solrate climbed from about 25 GSol/s in late August to briefly above 30 GSol/s, according to ZcashInfo data cited by The Block. The hardware economics, though, have tightened. A Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro now generates about $708 per megawatt-hour in gross revenue, roughly 3% below the $727/MWh it fetched on Aug. 24 when ZEC traded under $900, per TheEnergyMag.
More machines. Thinner margins per unit of energy. Holders, as ever, are divided.
The move was not all one-way. Friday’s August U.S. jobs report showed 162,000 jobs added against a 56,000 forecast, with unemployment at 4.1%, Decrypt reported, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Bitcoin slipped back below $80,000 on the print. ZEC gave back part of its intraday gain.
Technicals leaned overbought at the highs. Decrypt cited a relative strength index of 78.6, above the 70 threshold, with the 50-day moving average above the 200-day and an ADX reading of 48, well past the 25 level that signals a genuine trend. Support retracement levels sat at $892.94 and $808.63 if the rally cools. The next data point, Decrypt noted, is Friday’s August CPI report.
Zcash launched in 2016, created by cryptographer Zooko Wilcox, and ranks alongside Monero (XMR) among the best-known privacy coins using zero-knowledge cryptography. ZEC was trading around $200 in March, The Block reported, and has gained about 2,300% over the past year, Decrypt added. The token also climbed past Dogecoin to rank among the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Decrypt reported, citing CoinMarketCap.
