ZCash surges on funding news, but ZEC traders shouldn’t buy yet – Here’s why!

ambcryptoPublished on 2026-03-10Last updated on 2026-03-10

Abstract

ZCash (ZEC) surged 8.17% with a 43% increase in daily trading volume following the announcement that ZCash Open Developmental Lab (ZODL) secured over $25 million in seed funding from major investors including Paradigm and a16z crypto. Despite the short-term price boost, the longer-term outlook remains cautious. The higher timeframe trend is bullish, but swing traders should note that ZEC's structure is still bearish. A key resistance level lies at $251.4, which needs to be reclaimed to shift momentum bullishly. Traders are advised to wait for a stronger bullish setup before entering positions.

ZCash [ZEC] was one of the big winners in the past 24 hours, rallying 8.17% with a 43% uptick in daily trading volume.

The gains came after the ZCash Open Developmental Lab (ZODL) announced that it had secured over $25 million in seed funding to continue building the privacy-focused ecosystem.

The funding round drew support from Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, among other leading angels in crypto and technology.

ZODL was founded by Josh Swihart, former CEO of Electronic Coin Company. The ECC engineering and product teams had quit ZCash in January following a governance dispute over Bootstrap.

This conflict had made it difficult to work “effectively and with integrity“, Swihart had said. After joining ZODL, the team continued to build the primary user interface for ZCash.

The Zodl wallet was one of the points of focus for the team. The self-custodial mobile wallet app allows users to hold ZEC and execute shielded transactions. According to the project, the wallet has expanded ZCash’s shielded pool by more than 400% since its launch in 2024 (then named Zashi).

Funding news sends ZCash higher

Coinalyze stats showed that the ZEC Open Interest had soared by 9% in 24 hours. This corroborated the spike in spot trading volume, showing that speculators and spot buyers were interested in ZCash.

The news release has catalyzed short-term price gains for the privacy token, but in the longer-term outlook, the retracement phase has not ended yet.

The higher timeframe trend was bullish, and the retracement from $750 to $187, though seemingly extreme, was part of the higher timeframe retracement. However, this is for investors with a multi-year horizon.

For swing traders and short-term holders, ZCash remained bearishly biased for now. The triggers for a bullish recovery have not fired yet.

What is this trigger, and how should traders prepare?

The H4 timeframe’s swing structure remained bearish after the recent lower high at $203.5 (orange) was breached.

To flip the swing structure bullishly, the $251.4 high must be reclaimed.

This was where the $250 bearish order block was also located. The sizeable supply zone overhead was a threat in the short-term, even though prices bounced nearly 10% in a day.

Buyers can wait for this area to be flipped to demand before buying.

Their patience would be rewarded with a much stronger bullish setup than what is currently seen.


Final Summary

  • The $25 million ZCash Open Development Lab seed funding news drove ZEC prices higher by nearly 10% for the day.
  • Multi-timeframe analysis gave ZEC traders and investors differing signals. The $250 and $187 levels were the pivotal ones nearby.

Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice and is solely the writer’s opinion.

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