Zcash (ZEC), a privacy coin whose zero-knowledge proofs let users shield sender, recipient, and amount details on its blockchain, is trading near $790 after retreating from a rally that carried it almost 80% higher, from roughly $490 to $880, earlier this month. Data from Santiment, a crypto analytics firm, shows average ZEC social dominance ran 183% above its earlier baseline during the August rally, a faster expansion in share of discussion than Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Hyperliquid recorded over the same comparison period.

The advance now faces technical resistance near $825 after several lower highs, while ZEC futures open interest of roughly $1.57 billion adds substantial derivatives exposure around the current trading range. At the same time, a new exchange listing has expanded brokerage access, and an advisory vote is addressing unresolved questions about the network's next upgrade.

Attention Shifts Beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum

According to Santiment, Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange best known for perpetual futures trading, averaged 44% above its earlier social dominance baseline during the same comparison window, Bitcoin recorded about 12% growth, and Ethereum posted approximately 8%. These percentages describe changes in discussion share rather than token returns or market capitalization.

The metric compares mentions of a coin against discussion of the 100 largest crypto assets. A 183% increase therefore represents 2.83 times the baseline, not a 183% share of total discussion.

Attention also peaked on different dates. Ethereum reached its social dominance high on August 11, followed by Zcash on August 22. Bitcoin and Hyperliquid both peaked on August 26, pointing to successive waves of attention across the four assets.

Bitcoin's social volume grew about 9% in August compared with July, while its price gained roughly 26%. Santiment interprets that gap as evidence that broad rallies can outpace growth in overall discussion. For Zcash, greater social dominance does not establish fresh buying or identify bullish sentiment.

Investment access has also changed during the price advance. Grayscale launched ZCSH on NYSE Arca on August 25, converting its existing trust into an exchange-traded product, a wrapper that trades through ordinary brokerage accounts. The product's assets of roughly $316 million include inherited holdings and should not be confused with fresh inflows.

Separately, the Zcash Foundation opened its Community Advisory Panel poll on unresolved NU7 proposals, the open questions heading into the network's next upgrade. The questions cover issuance policy and shorter block times, with voting closing September 14 at 19:00 UTC. The advisory process does not itself activate network changes. The faster-block proposal would shorten target intervals from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, which would let transactions confirm more frequently, while the issuance options address future mining rewards — the subsidies that pay the miners who secure the network — without changing the total supply cap of 21 million ZEC, the Foundation says.

Futures Exposure and Chart Levels Shape the Next Test

CoinGlass figures show ZEC futures open interest near $1.57 billion as of 06:10 UTC on August 28. Futures turnover totaled approximately $3.54 billion over 24 hours, compared with reported spot volume of $345 million, putting derivatives turnover at about 10.3 times the reported spot total.

Liquidations reached roughly $5.4 million, equivalent to about 0.34% of outstanding open interest. Open interest measures unsettled contracts and includes both long and short exposure, so it cannot establish whether traders favor a higher Zcash price. Nor does futures turnover measure new money entering the market: repeated trading can increase volume without a corresponding rise in outstanding positions. Funding rates, collateral, and spot demand provide additional context that these totals alone cannot supply.

On the chart, buyers cleared $512 and $550 before the move accelerated. Sellers then established a series of lower highs, leaving descending resistance around $815 to $825. A sustained break above that band would place $840 to $850 in focus ahead of the $880 peak.

Support sits around $765, with recent intraday lows widening the relevant area to $755 through $770. A loss of that zone would bring the next support region, around $720 to $740, into view. Meanwhile, the daily Relative Strength Index has eased from above 80 to about 69.7, sitting near the 70 threshold conventionally used to flag overbought conditions.