How privacy narrative sparked ZCash’s rally — And what it needs now

ambcryptoPublicado a 2026-02-17Actualizado a 2026-02-17

Resumen

ZCash (ZEC) experienced significant price volatility, rallying past $300 recently before retreating below that key psychological level. This movement was influenced by Bitcoin's price action, with ZEC bulls initially showing strength but facing selling pressure from broader market weakness. The rally, which began in late 2025, was primarily fueled by a growing narrative around privacy coins. This led to a substantial increase in on-chain activity, including a rise in both regular and shielded transactions. Shielded transactions, which encrypt sender, receiver, and amount details, saw their share jump to over 26% during peak months. Furthermore, the amount of ZEC held in privacy-preserving pools grew dramatically from 11.25% of the circulating supply in late 2024 to over 30% a year later. This fundamental shift in user behavior and asset holding, combined with the post-halving narrative, drove increased adoption and investor appeal for ZEC network.

ZCash experienced high volatility on the price charts in recent weeks.

AMBCrypto reported that the defense of the $187 level was a crucial development. This level was an important retracement support level on the weekly timeframe.

Zooming in, the past few days’ trading saw ZEC rally beyond $300.

Following Bitcoin’s [BTC] rejection at $$70.9k on Sunday, the 15th of February, ZEC has slipped back below the $300 psychological support, as well as the 4-hour timeframe’s imbalance at this area.

It was expected that ZCash [ZEC] bulls had the short-term strength to drive prices to $360, but at the same time, AMBCrypto had warned in an earlier report that Bitcoin [BTC] weakness could see selling pressure on ZEC.

The short and long-term price situation has been laid out thus far.

The Spot selling pressure remained prevalent, as the Spot Taker CVD showed with its taker sell-dominant reading.

But why did ZCash begin its immense rally in September 2025? What conditions need to align for ZEC bulls to repeat the feat?

A closer look at the ZCash onchain trends

The privacy coin narrative seized greater and greater mindshare beginning in August last year. It grew wildly popular in October. This saw an increased total transfer, as the unshielded transactions data above showed.

It also increased privacy-focused transactions, as the shielded stats show.

Shielded transactions encrypt transaction details such as sender, receiver, and amount, using zero-knowledge proofs.

The percentage of shielded transactions remained at around 14.5%-19.6% between April and July 2025. It reached local zeniths of 26.3% and 26.7% in August and October, respectively.

Combined with the growing privacy narrative and increased ZEC usage, the percentage increase might appear small. However, it still represents a vast swathe of users flocking to the network.

Interestingly, the shielded supply, or the ZEC in the privacy-preserving Sapling and Orchard pools, was at 3.2 million in June 2025. By November, it had grown to 5 million, where it remained at the time of writing.

Like BTC, ZEC also has a fixed max supply of 21 million. Hence, 5 million represents 30.24% of the circulating supply, a dramatic growth from November 2024, when the figure was 11.25%.

It is likely that the 2024 halving and the narrative shift, followed by the sizeable increase in shielded usage, are the only fundamental changes to ZCash over the past year. Spot ETF offeringscould also change the landscape.

Final Summary

ZCash experienced a massive shift in optics last year, but its use case remained the same, while user and investor appeal soared.
In a way, ZCash was a lot like Bitcoin, which has become easier to use (example, Lightning Network) and invest in (spot ETFs) but remained fundamentally the same.

Preguntas relacionadas

QWhat was the key price level that ZCash defended on the weekly timeframe, as reported by AMBCrypto?

AThe key price level that ZCash defended was the $187 level, which was an important retracement support.

QAccording to the article, what two major factors are the fundamental changes for ZCash over the past year?

AThe two major fundamental changes were the 2024 halving combined with a narrative shift, followed by a sizeable increase in shielded usage.

QWhat percentage of ZCash's circulating supply was in shielded pools as of the time of writing, and how does this compare to November 2024?

AAs of the time of writing, 30.24% of the circulating supply was in shielded pools, a dramatic growth from 11.25% in November 2024.

QWhat on-chain metric showed that spot selling pressure remained prevalent for ZEC?

AThe Spot Taker CVD metric showed a taker sell-dominant reading, indicating that spot selling pressure was prevalent.

QThe article compares ZCash to Bitcoin. In what two ways does it say Bitcoin has become easier to use and invest in?

AThe article states that Bitcoin has become easier to use, for example with the Lightning Network, and easier to invest in with spot ETFs.

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