Zcash's Next Big Target? Co-Founder Says $2,000 ZEC Is Possible

In a recent X post, Zcash cofounder Eli Ben-Sasson doubled down on his bullish outlook for the $ZEC token, saying $2,000 was a "no-brainer" while hinting at a longer-term target of $5,000. The Zcash cofounder was weighing in on a likely price prediction for $ZEC in 2026.

Ben-Sasson shared a screenshot from OffMarket, a privacy service by Starkware that lets users trade on Polymarket without publicly linking their positions to their accounts. The screenshot showed the odds of "what price will Zcash hit in 2026" alongside a bet on the privacy token reaching $2,000 by the end of the year.

The Zcash co-founder said he had already predicted elsewhere that $ZEC would reach $5,000, but he sees the $2,000 level as an easier milestone; hence he placed the prediction on OffMarket, a platform he described as a 'privacy VPN for Polymarket'.

Zcash rose to a high of $1,696 on September 26 following months of rallying, before it began to retreat. At the time of writing, Zcash was down 10.23% in the last 24 hours to $1,098 as the broader crypto market saw significant selling pressure after Wednesday's inflation data ignited concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates this month.

An increase to $2,000 will require Zcash to rise more than 82% from its current price.

Amid the price drop, Zcash fell beneath the critical daily MA 50 support, which buoyed its rally in August 2026. A return above this level might see bulls gain traction once again to retest the $1,300 to $1,400 range before a run-up towards $1,700 and then $2,000.

Zcash Retreats

According to Santiment, $ZEC rose about 48% from Sep 15 to Sep 26, 2026, and had handed back nearly all of those gains by Oct 14, 2026.

Open interest in coins topped at 1.60 million $ZEC, and by October 14, 2026, it was 2.5% below its September 15, 2026 level, while social volume peaked at 671 mentions. Santiment noted that October 14's 50 mentions were the quietest day since September 2, 2026. Price kept rising, surpassing $1,650, but with less attention and less leverage.

Zcash's NU7 upgrade gets its mainnet decision on October 20, 2026, but social dominance remains at its lowest level since early September 2026.