Long-running privacy coins Zcash (ZEC) continues its recent surge, rising 31% week over week. Bitcoin, Ethereumand other major coins are in deep red, but now a publicly traded financial company has announced that it is accumulating more of the rising cryptocurrency.
Cypherpunk Technologies (Nasdaq: CYPH) announced on Wednesday that it purchased an additional 29,869.29 ZEC (Zcash) for $18 million at an average price of $602.63 per coin.
Coupled with the company's initial acquisition of 203,775.27 ZEC for $50 million, the company now holds 233,644.56 ZEC at an average price of $291.04, representing 1.43% of the total supply of ZEC. Cypherpunk's ZEC treasury is currently valued at over $146 million.
Zcash recently traded at $626 per coin, up 125% in the past 30 days and more than a 15x increase since the beginning of September. Although ZEC's price has crossed the $700 mark multiple times this month, it remains volatile, with the charts swinging wildly up and down.
Despite the recent rally, ZEC remains a long way from its all-time high of $3,191, set at its launch in 2016.
In contrast, Bitcoin hit a recent all-time high, reaching over $126,000 in early October. But it has since fallen sharply, dropping to a seven-month low of nearly $88,637 on Wednesday. Bitcoin has fallen more than 12% in the last week, while Zcash has risen 31% in the same period.
Cypherpunk Technologies launches Zcash vault earlier this month It is backed by Winklevoss Capital, a VC firm founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. The company recently appointed veteran investor Kin Oei to its board of directors and Winklevoss Capital's Will McEvoy as both director and chief investment officer.
CYPH stock rose nearly 6% on the day to its latest price of $3.14, for a one-month gain of 469%.
Founded in 2016 with the help of famous whistleblower Edward Snowden, Zcash forked from Bitcoin's codebase with a focus on privacy. Transactions are “shielded” by zero-knowledge proofs, making it difficult to track coin movements.
What's causing the recent surge? Analysts suggest this may be due in part to Bitcoin's growing mainstream profile, increased interest from Wall Street institutions, and concerns that crypto natives will turn to coins that aren't easy to track on the blockchain.
“Bitcoin itself has always been completely transparent. ETFs haven't made it any less transparent, it's just made it more intermediary,” said Galaxy Digital Research Analyst Will Owens. I wrote this month. “In contrast, Zcash proponents frame it as ‘crypto-Bitcoin,’ a return to cypherpunk principles that resonate in the face of rampant on-chain surveillance.”
