Zcash Rallies on Robinhood Listing, Outpacing Bitcoin, Ether

ZEC, the native token of the Zcash network, traded $359 at 15:57UTC, up from $326 and pushing its gains to about 50% over the past month, according to data from CoinGecko. Daily trading volume reached about $623mn, while the token's market cap is hovering near $5.9bn.

A privacy token is a cryptocurrency built to make transaction activity less visible on public blockchains by masking details such as sender, receiver or amount.

The move underscores how listings on major platforms like Robinhood, which reported more than 27.4mn funded customer in February, can boost demand for closely watched tokens like ZEC. It also build's on ZEC's strong upward trend, which has far outpaced Bitcoin's (BTC) 9% rise over the past month and Ether's (ETH) 6% increase over the same period. 

Bitcoin was trading at $77,771, down 0.7% on the day, while ETH was changing hands at $2,315, also down 0.6% over the past 24 hours. 

Momentum continues

Zcash's rally comes even as privacy tokens face renewed regulatory scrutiny. In January, Dubai's financial regulator banned assets like Zcash and Monero (XMR) from regulated exchanges, citing concerns that privacy-focused tokens and related tools like mixers, including Tornado Cash, could be used for money laundering and to bypass sanctions.

Zcash uses zero-knowledge technology to keep the sender, receiver and transaction amount private on the blockchain, while crypto mixers work by shuffling funds from multiple users to make it harder to trace where the money came from.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority's (DFSA) move highlighted the ongoing debate in crypto between privacy and regulation. Some policymakers are pushing for stricter rules on privacy tokens, while others argue that such tools are essential for institutions. 

Even so, institutional interest in Zcash continues to build. In November 2025, asset manager Grayscale filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The move would give investors exposure to the token through a traditional market vehicle if approved and mark the first spot ZEC ETF.

Top performer

ZEC was among the best-performing large-cap digital assets in 2025, rising more than 800%, according to CoinGecko data. It wasn't the only privacy-focused token to rally as XMR ranked as the second-best performer, rising about 127% over the year.

As of 24 Apr, the privacy-focused token sector has a market cap of $25.2bn, up nearly 3% over the past 24 hours and outperforming the broader crypto market, which recorded a 1% decrease in market cap today.