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Crypto asset manager Grayscale has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to convert its Grayscale Zcash Trust into a spot ZEC exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a preliminary prospectus dated Nov. 26, Grayscale said it plans to list the fund on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH. The filing names Coinbase Custody as custodian and Coinbase as prime broker. The Bank of New York Mellon will act as transfer agent and administrator of the ETF.
As of Nov. 25, Grayscale Zcash Trust held about 394,400 ZEC, worth around $199.2 million at current market price, per data from Grayscale’s website.
If approved, this would be the first spot Zcash product listed on a U.S. stock exchange, giving Grayscale an early lead in offering ZEC exposure via a vehicle familiar and accessible to traditional and institutional investors.
But SEC approval timelines for these conversions vary. Some have taken months, others over a year, depending on market and regulatory conditions. For example, Grayscale’s recent Dogecoin Trust conversion into a spot ETF took about three months to be approved and launched, according to regulatory filings. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s multi-crypto ETF just launched in September, while the firm filed with the SEC to convert it from a fund almost a year prior.
Zcash Rally
Grayscale’s plan to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF comes as ZEC has seen a huge surge in price since late September, amid growing investor interest in privacy-focused crypto assets. ZEC is up more than 1,000% in the past three months.
As The Defiant previously reported, well into the recent rally, the Winklevoss brothers revealed Cypherpunk, the first U.S. public ZEC digital asset treasury (DAT) company, which the investors said is targeting accumulating at least 5% of the total Zcash supply.