Zcash has emerged as one of the clearest relative-strength outliers among large-cap cryptocurrencies. Data attributed to Glassnode on September 24 showed that only nine assets from the top-50 cohort tracked from Bitcoin’s previous all-time high had outperformed BTC, with ZEC leading at roughly 14.4x its starting level in Bitcoin-relative terms. ZEC’s performance has separated sharply from most of the large-cap altcoin market, while its 30-day dollar return stood near 90% as of September 25, compared with roughly 7% for Bitcoin over the same window.
The move extends a trend already visible earlier in the year. A June market analysis showed ZEC gaining more than 1,000% from June 2025 levels even as Bitcoin struggled during parts of that period. The latest rally strengthens the relative-performance trend, but price appreciation alone does not establish its cause, making fund activity, exchange flows and protocol developments more useful when examined separately.
Whale Flows and ZCSH Add to Zcash Activity
Onchain Lens reported that one unidentified large holder accumulated 36,360 ZEC from Binance, OKX, Kraken and Gate over six days through September 12, valued at approximately $41.56 million at the time. The transfers provide evidence of substantial exchange withdrawals, but they do not prove a long-term holding strategy or identify the beneficial owner. Similar large-holder accumulation during an earlier ZEC sell-off also highlighted how exchange movements can affect available trading supply without revealing an investor’s ultimate intentions.
Regulated ZEC exposure has expanded at the same time. The former Grayscale Zcash Trust was renamed The Zcash ETF and began trading on NYSE Arca under ZCSH on August 25. Its AUM rose from approximately $304.6 million that day to about $979.5 million by September 24. That roughly threefold increase should not be interpreted as an equivalent amount of new investor inflows, because AUM also rises when the underlying ZEC held by the product appreciates. A September 8 SEC filing separately confirmed a roughly $100 million share acquisition by DCG in exchange for 85,705 ZEC.
ZEC itself has remained highly volatile during the expansion. Binance-linked historical data shows the asset rising more than 20% on September 16 and nearly 11% on September 22 before falling about 8% the following day. It traded around $1,546 early on September 25 after recently reaching highs near $1,680. The price structure therefore reflects exceptional relative strength alongside unusually wide daily trading ranges, rather than a steady accumulation trend.
NU7 Moves Toward October Testnet
Zcash’s next protocol milestone is NU7. According to the official ecosystem timeline, code completion is targeted for September 30, followed by testnet activation on October 6, a final mainnet decision on October 20 and planned mainnet activation on November 5. The current NU7 scope includes 25-second block spacing, the disabling of version 4 transactions and Network Sustainability Mechanism changes. The upgrade follows an eventful development cycle that included the Orchard soundness vulnerability disclosed earlier in 2026 and the subsequent NU6.2 remediation.
Post-quantum work is progressing on a separate track. The Project Tachyon roadmap describes research into post-quantum key exchange, Private Information Retrieval and a future shielded protocol, but those features remain proposed development work rather than NU7 functionality. Zcash’s quantum-security roadmap should therefore not be presented as an imminent mainnet feature. Similar post-quantum research is emerging elsewhere in crypto, including Ethereum’s proposed EIP-8288 cryptographic aggregation architecture.
For ZEC, the next measurable checkpoints are now concrete. NU7 code completion on September 30 and testnet activation on October 6 will provide the first near-term tests of whether the planned upgrade remains on schedule, while ZCSH assets and large-wallet exchange flows will show whether September’s market activity persists beyond the current price cycle.