ZEC reached a price of approximately $1,388, marking a 15-20% increase within 24 hours and bringing its market capitalization to about $23 billion. This follows a period in December 2025 when the asset traded between $20 and $50.
Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare and co-founder of Zcash, attributes the rally to investor concerns regarding Bitcoin's protocol rigidity. He previously proposed a 4% annual issuance rate for Bitcoin in July 2026 to address long-term risks related to the fixed supply cap.
On September 16, the Zcash community concluded the NU7 governance vote with 2.4 million participants. The proposal to reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds received 99.9% support, while 98.9% of voters favored keeping Bitcoin-style halvings.
The reduction in block time aims to triple transaction throughput. ZEC has seen gains of approximately 160% over the period where Bitcoin grew by 18%, signaling a shift in market sentiment toward privacy-focused assets despite historical regulatory challenges.
