Zcash (ZEC) surged about 19% Thursday to trade near $1,490, forcing $56 million of leveraged bets shut after Paradigm disclosed it owns the privacy token.
Key Points:
- Zcash climbed about 19% over 24 hours, far outpacing Bitcoin and Ether.
- Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said the firm holds ZEC and called it a private complement to Bitcoin.
- Traders lost $345 million across crypto, with short sellers absorbing $208 million of the damage.
Zcash Rally Outpaces Bitcoin And Ether
The token traded near $1,486 late Thursday, up roughly 19% over 24 hours, according to market data. Earlier in the session it had climbed more than 17% to nearly $1,358, far ahead of every other large-cap asset. The advance lifted Zcash's market value above $25 billion, ranking it among the 10 largest cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin (BTC) added about 1% to just above $76,400, while Ether (ETH) and BNB rose roughly 2%. XRP matched Bitcoin's gain, Solana and Hyperliquid each advanced about 3%, and Tron finished flat.
Some 86,816 traders across the market were liquidated over 24 hours for a combined $345 million, with the largest single closure an $18 million Bitcoin position. Shorts made up $208 million of that total, against $137 million of longs. Ether led the damage at nearly $89 million, followed by Bitcoin at $85 million and Zcash at $56 million.
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Matt Huang Frames Zcash As Bitcoin Complement
Matt Huang, co-founder of the crypto investment firm Paradigm, revealed on Wednesday that the firm holds ZEC and backs the Zcash Open Development Lab. He called the token a "private complement to Bitcoin."
Huang also defended the network's inflation-funded developer fund, arguing that long-term funding matters as AI-driven cyber capabilities and quantum computing advance. Pure coin voting adds unpredictability that could limit long-term trust in Zcash as a monetary asset, he wrote, urging the project to pair it with other forms of governance. His remarks followed a coinholder poll on the NU7 upgrade, in which 99.9% of participants backed cutting target block times to 25 seconds from 75 seconds.
Privacy Coins Extend Month-Long Run
Paradigm's position in the ecosystem was not a secret, since the development lab raised more than $25 million in March from backers including a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures and Winklevoss Capital. The broader market also firmed after the Federal Reserve lifted rates by a quarter point to a 3.75% to 4% range, its first increase since 2023.
Thursday's move extends a run that has lifted ZEC roughly 160% over the past month, against an 18.2% gain for Bitcoin. The token broke above $1,000 on Sept. 4 for the first time in almost a decade, after starting that climb near $500. Privacy coins as a group now sit 213% above their level at Bitcoin's October 2025 peak, while a basket excluding ZEC gained about 85% over the past year.
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