Ben-Sasson Stands by $5,000 Call

Zcash (ZEC) co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson has reaffirmed his $5,000 year-end price target for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, while conceding that even he cannot fully explain the rally that has carried the token this far. In a post on X on Thursday, Ben-Sasson said the forecast he laid out earlier in the year remains intact, noting that ZEC had already broken through his previous milestone of $1,200 by September 25.

The token pushed higher still, briefly trading above $1,600 and printing a 24-hour high of $1,621 as momentum compounded. Market data puts ZEC's trailing 30-day gain at roughly 102%, a run that lifted the coin to a multi-year high of $1,590 along the way.

What makes the call unusual is Ben-Sasson's own candor about its cause. He observed that whale investors have been asking him why Zcash's privacy model is suddenly drawing so much capital, and admitted he does not have a precise answer himself. The model in question is built on the Zerocash protocol Ben-Sasson co-authored: zero-knowledge proofs allow users to shield transaction details on an otherwise public ledger, a design that sets ZEC apart from fully transparent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Recent on-chain flows lend support to that observation: accumulation by whale Garret Jin has been one visible thread in the move.

As for $5,000, the co-founder frames the level as a broad view of the network's potential by the end of 2026 rather than the output of a short-term trading model — a target sitting roughly 3.2 times above where the coin traded when the forecast drew renewed attention. It is a projection, not a guarantee.

ZCSH Crosses $1 Billion in Assets

Institutional demand stands out as the clearest fundamental thread behind the surge. Grayscale's Zcash exchange-traded fund, ZCSH, has crossed $1 billion in assets under management roughly one month after launch, according to the asset manager's announcement, which described the product as the world's first Zcash fund. The spot trading vehicle recorded approximately $306.12 million in net inflows over the past 30 days alone, pushing total net assets through the $1 billion threshold — a signal that investor interest in ZEC through traditional wrappers is accelerating. Wrappers of this kind give investors exposure to ZEC through conventional brokerage channels without direct custody of the token, extending access beyond crypto-native exchanges.

That pace followed Grayscale's earlier move to file for a 3-for-1 share split after $233 million in inflows, a structural response to surging demand. The milestone also lands amid a broader revival of interest in privacy-oriented altcoins.

The rally has reignited a debate over what ZEC actually is. Alliance co-founder Qiao Wang, speaking on a recent podcast, compared Zcash to Bitcoin and called it "a Bitcoin that can change." His argument: Zcash's protocol retains the flexibility to update against emerging threats, from quantum-computing risks to tightening privacy demand, whereas Bitcoin's deliberately rigid blockchain design offers ironclad guarantees on fixed supply and predictability but limits how quickly the network can adapt. Wang was careful to position ZEC not as a superior Bitcoin but as a hedge — he holds far more Bitcoin than ZEC and treats the privacy coin as protection against technological or structural risks Bitcoin itself might face.

$1,528 Support Is the Line to Watch

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite support/resistance scoring engine places ZEC at $1,543.32, down 1.25% on the day, with the uptrend still technically intact — RSI at 65.05 and a bullish MACD signal. The composite rates the $1,528.17 support at 84 out of 100, the strongest level on the board, underpinned by the S1 pivot, the Ichimoku Tenkan line and a flipped resistance-to-support confluence. The $1,583.78 resistance scores 69/100, driven by the Keltner upper band, R1 and a bearish pin bar, with $1,674.44 next at 65/100.

Derivatives data shows $1.05 billion in open interest alongside a negative funding rate of -0.0013% on perpetual futures, meaning shorts pay longs — a mild contrarian positive in a market where the Fear & Greed Index reads 71, or Greed. Holding $1,528 keeps upside targets at $1,584 and then $,674 in view; losing that level would invalidate the bullish thesis and point toward the $1,412 support, which scores 61/100.