cryptopolitan.com
ZCash is staying in the spotlight, based on its trend of generating more shielded coins. Recently, a new record was set for $ZEC locked in shielded pools.
ZCash ($ZEC) is extending its trend of locking more coins in shielded pools. In the past day, the supply of shielded coins expanded to a new all-time high, following more retail deposits. Another 959 $ZEC were shielded, adding to the more rapid trend of adoption for privacy coins.
The creator of ZCash noted the new record and the potential for locking even more $ZEC in shielded pools.
Another day, another ATH.
959 more $ZEC shielded. https://t.co/n7u2XZNofS
— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) October 21, 2025
Shielding more $ZEC also means the buyers may not sell, instead using their coins for storage. $ZEC is seen as a long-term proposition, an anonymous coin usable in the DeFi space.
The depositors to shielded pools will most probably avoid selling their $ZEC on centralized markets, instead using the coins on Solana in their bridged and shielded version.
In the past three weeks, around 1M $ZEC entered shielded pools, and has not been dumped on exchanges. Retail is also still shielding coins, instead of taking short-term profits.
$ZEC retains its price range
The recent interest in the ZCash project and its bridging to Solana is the main factor behind the $ZEC price action.
$ZEC stayed solidly above $250, recently reclaiming the $270 level. The most bullish predictions is for the coin to attempt a recovery to $500. The coin has positioned itself as unique, despite the creation of more recent anonymous coins and tokens. $ZEC is also one of the few assets to grow in $BTC terms. In the past year, $ZEC grew by 337% against $BTC, going as high as 0.002 $BTC.
ZCash retains a track record of one decade, and has claims to fulfilling one of the predictions of Satoshi Nakamoto for an anonymous version of Bitcoin. Additionally, the $ZEC community boasts the millions of $ZEC coins locked in the shielded pools as one of its positive trends.
ZCash gets a boost from retail, whale buying
$ZEC open interest remains relatively low compared to other older altcoins. On Binance, open interest is over $91M, out of a total of $210M. However, the most notable activity of $ZEC is on the Near Protocol.
ZCash is boosting new ways of using $ZEC, as the coin has been recently removed from the Keystone wallet. The Zashi app is currently the main access point for trading and shielding $ZEC.
Near Protocol swaps and access to the Zashi wallet means retail traders have a wider access to $ZEC. Additionally, data shows a whale has swapped up to 50 $BTC per day for $ZEC coins.
The rise of $ZEC also showed not all privacy coins were the same. Most of the privacy assets, including new coins, took a hit during the latest market correction.
Monero (XMR) still traded around $305, as its social media mindshare is still high. Railgun (RAIL) stalled its rally at around $2.51, as most other privacy coins took a downturn following the end of the altcoin market.