On September 17, the price of Zcash (ZEC) reached $1380, marking a 20% increase over the previous 24 hours. Following this surge, the asset climbed to the ninth position among major cryptocurrencies, with its market capitalization exceeding $22 billion. At the time of reporting, the coin was trading at approximately $1360.
The price movement coincided with comments from Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who described Zcash as a privacy-focused complement to digital gold. Paradigm holds ZEC and supports the ZODL team. Huang advocated for continued developer funding and suggested that governance decisions should combine token holder voting with other mechanisms.
On September 16, the ZEC community voted to accelerate block times and maintain the halving schedule. These decisions relate to the recently approved Zcash Improvement Proposals (ZIP). Previously, on July 28, the network underwent the Ironwood update to address a critical vulnerability discovered in the Orchard protocol, which established a new shielded pool.
