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The Zcash price rally has made the privacy coin the second-largest crypto holding for Maelstrom, Arthur Hayes’ family office.
- Arthur Hayes says Zcash now ranks second in his family office’s crypto portfolio.
- $ZEC price gains have helped push the privacy coin into the spot behind Bitcoin.
- The altcoin’s price has skyrocketed in recent weeks as the privacy narrative picks momentum.
Arthur Hayes announced on November 7 via X that the recent surge in the altcoin’s price has pushed it into second place among Maelstrom’s largest and most liquid cryptocurrency holdings.
Zcash ($ZEC) price gains currently have $ZEC sitting behind Bitcoin ($BTC) in terms of the family office’s digital assets holdings by value, according to Hayes, the co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and chief investment officer of Maelstrom. He noted:
“Due to the rapid ascent in price, $ZEC is now the 2nd largest *LIQUID* holding in the Maelstrom portfolio behind $BTC.”
Hayes comments came as Zcash witnessed another bullish flip on Friday, with the privacy coin’s native token jumping to highs of $656. The intraday gains have extended $ZEC’s rally to its highest mark since 2018, putting current levels at eight-year highs.
Hayes recently shared a “ludicrous” $ZEC price prediction. Also shared on X, he posted that the top privacy coin could hit $10k, accompanied by a chart showing $ZEC’s staggering gains.
It's just ludicrous.$ZEC to $10k pic.twitter.com/EfyiPB2Azl
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 7, 2025
Why is Zcash price up?
Driving the privacy coin’s price rally, now an impressive 3,800% bounce from lows of $15 in early June 2024, has been market exuberance around its shielded transactions. The token is up over 340% in the past month and by more than 1,300% in the past year.
Zcash’s privacy technology uses zero-knowledge proofs to allow users to “shield” their transactions by encrypting addresses, transaction amount and memo field. The key is having $ZEC use as completely private. The shielded $ZEC supply on the network has soared to nearly 5 million.
Hayes says shielded transactions are key to the next phase of adoption across decentralized exchanges.
“$ZEC shielded tx are going to power the next wave of true DEXs. What are your picks for the winners of a true privacy enabled DEX?”
The altcoin’s price has surged amid this growth.
Other tokens, including Dash, have also benefited from the privacy narrative.