Zcash (ZEC) rate: what happened to the price of one of the leading "anonymous" cryptocurrencies?
The early period of Zcash (2016 — 2017)
The Zcash cryptocurrency was launched in late October 2016 and started being listed on exchanges in the same month. At the very start of the launch, the price of Zcash reached its all-time high (ATH) at $5942 — a sporadic case for cryptocurrencies, not counting shieldcoins, whose value often collapses after launch.
The price jumped to 2,600 BTC or $1.8 million on one exchange at the bitcoin exchange rate. The value was estimated in BTC, as most crypto exchanges then supported trading pairs for altcoins only with BTC. Only a few exchanges allowed trading with the only stablecoin at the time — USDT.
There is no rational explanation for such a substantial jump in the rate of ZEC cryptocurrency. The reason could probably be the low liquidity of trading pairs with Zcash and traders' mistakes at the start of trading, which is not uncommon.
After a sharp rise, the price of Zcash began to plummet, and by the end of December 2016, it had fallen to $34 — 99.5% below ZEC's all-time high. This is a natural correction, as the case was unique for the crypto market: Zcash became the first altcoin, which surpassed the price of bitcoin — the first and the leading cryptocurrency on the market — thousands of times.
After reaching a local minimum at the end of 2016, the growth in the value of the Zcash altcoin recovered, and by the middle of 2017, the ZEC cryptocurrency rate rose to a local maximum of $395. This was facilitated by the general growth trend in the cryptocurrency market and the launch of the Zcash Foundation, which attracted additional investments in the project.
New market phase and crypto winter (2018 — 2020)
By the beginning of 2018, the Zcash cryptocurrency exchange rate reached a new annual high of $703, a 16-fold increase from a year earlier when ZEC was trading at $43 per coin. Among other things, the price of the ZEC cryptocurrency was boosted by news of a listing on Bithumb, one of the largest crypto exchanges at the time.
This was the peak of the bull run in the crypto market, which rapidly collapsed after the collapse of quotes of digital assets in January 2018 — then began a long period of correction, dubbed "crypto winter."
The Zcash exchange rate dropped almost twofold in the next month — to $368. In April, the altcoin reached a local minimum of $185. During the entire period of crypto winter, there were no special events with the ZEC cryptocurrency, except for the Sapling update, aimed at improving the performance of the Zcash network, and the launch of a new zk-SNARK called Halo, which was designed to solve the problem with the scalability of the blockchain.
The Zcash exchange rate continued to fall until February 2019, when it reached $48, after which growth resumed, and the value of the ZEC cryptocurrency rose to a six-month high of $109. But the decline soon continued, and the altcoin's quotes fell to a two-year low of $27.
DeFi boom and a new large-scale crypto rally (2020 — 2021)
In 2020, the crypto market began to grow again: bitcoin and many altcoins, including those unrelated to the decentralized finance market (DeFi), increased in value. By August 2020, quotes for the cryptocurrency ZEC rose to $92.
In addition to the favorable situation in the crypto market, the rise in the price of the Zcash altcoin could be influenced by two critical events that occurred in its network:
- The Heartwood update was activated on July 16, 2020, on block 903,000. Heartwood was the fourth major update to the Zcash network and provided the ability to integrate the blockchain with third-party decentralized applications.
- Halving. On November 18, 2020, block 1,046,400 saw the first reduction in miner rewards on the Zcash network, reducing the reward per mined block from 12.5 ZEC to 6.25 ZEC.
Against the backdrop of the DeFi boom and the general growth of the crypto market, the price of the Zcash cryptocurrency continued to rise and, by May 2021, reached a new three-year high of $314, followed by a pullback to $89 in July and a new rise to $244 in November.
New global correction in the crypto market (2022 — 2023)
After another correction and reaching a local low of $96, the value of the ZEC cryptocurrency continued to rise until March 2022, when it reached a local high of $196. Then, the Zcash rate began to fall again and continued to decline until October 2024 with periodic pullbacks.
Despite the growth of the crypto market in the first half of 2024, the ZEC cryptocurrency exchange rate continued to fluctuate, mostly between $20 and $35. Despite the news that the Zcash Trust, managed by the large investment company Grayscale, made a large purchase of ZEC cryptocurrency, the value of the altcoin, after a slight increase, returned to a correction until October 2024.
Negative dynamics of the ZEC rate were most likely contributed by such factors as significant sales of bitcoin, including those related to the distribution of cryptocurrency to the affected clients of bankrupt companies Mt. Gox and Genesis Global, as well as the lack of reduction of the key rate of the Federal Reserve, which is traditionally a deterrent for investors.
Current rate and dynamics (2024)
In October, Zcash rate growth resumed, which is quite symbolic, as this month, the Zcash community celebrated the eighth anniversary of the cryptocurrency's launch. In November, the growth continued behind Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential race, who is known for his more than loyal attitude to the crypto sector.
As for the future dynamics of the Zcash exchange rate, it is still difficult to say something definite, as it largely depends on the general trend in the crypto market. However, Zcash co-founder Zuko Wilcox has proposed an initiative to transition the network to a hybrid consensus mechanism combining Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS). According to the Zcash team, the staking used in the PoS mechanism will favorably affect the ZEC cryptocurrency's exchange rate.