Arthur Hayes Bets Big on Zcash: Privacy Coin Surges Into Top 20 Cryptocurrencies

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes just doubled down on Zcash—and the market is taking notice. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency cracked the top 20 by market cap this week, proving institutional interest in anonymity coins isn’t just speculative vapor.

Hayes, never one for subtlety, called Zcash a 'non-negotiable' hedge against surveillance capitalism. Meanwhile, Wall Street still can’t decide whether privacy is a feature or a regulatory headache.

The rally comes as Layer 2 solutions struggle with bottlenecks—turns out, even crypto’s 'scalable' future needs a privacy parachute. Zcash’s zero-knowledge proofs now handle more transactions than half the DeFi ecosystem combined.

Will this surge last? Ask the SEC. But for now, privacy is back on the menu—and TradFi dinosaurs are left mining their spreadsheets for clues.

Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016, is back in the spotlight after years of muted performance. The growing demand, high profile endorsements and major technical upgrades has made Zcash one of the most talked about cryptocurrencies in 2025. 

The crypto community is curious about what is driving the recent surge and where it might go next. 

Arthur Hayes Puts Zcash in the Spotlight

Amid its rising appeal, Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX recently shared that ZEC has climbed to become the second-largest crypto holding in his family office, Maelstrom, right after Bitcoin.

Hayes has repeatedly mentioned Zcash in his X posts and has suggested that it could even hit $10,000.

Due to the rapid ascent in price, $ZEC is now the 2nd largest *LIQUID* holding in @MaelstromFund portfolio behind $BTC.

What Makes Zcash Different

Zcash uses advanced zero-knowledge proofs to enable fully encrypted transactions, all while maintaining the blockchain transparency and security. It is the first cryptocurrency to implement ZK encryption for private peer-to-peer payments.

Zcash has a fixed supply of 21 million coins and a halving schedule similar to Bitcoin. It operates as a decentralized protocol, so users always have full control over their own funds.

Zcash Market Cap Soars

Zcash climbed to as high as $734 yesterday, with its market cap topping $10 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid and major altcoins like SUI and Hedera. It surged over 30% in just a few hours to climb from $536 to $735. 

It is currently trading around $576, down about 6% in the past 24 hours, but still up over 200% in the past month and a massive 1,200% over the past year. It has also climbed into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

ZEC is rallying despite the broader market downturn, as Bitcoin recently fell below $100,000. Experts say that its rise is due to technical upgrades and growing adoption.

Technical Upgrades

A recent report highlights how Zcash has grown from a niche privacy project into a fully working encrypted-money network. 

Its shielded adoption has surged, and the Zashi wallet has made private transfers the default for users. Meanwhile, Project Tachyon, led by Sean Bowe, is working to handle thousands of private transactions per second. 

Zcash has even overtaken Monero to become the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by market cap.

Meanwhile, the privacy coins market cap has also gained momentum. The Privacy market cap is currently at $27.6 Billion, up 4.8% in the last 24 hours. Zcash is leading with $9.2 billion market cap. 

However, Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3 and Bitcoin advocate, has warned investors to reconsider their next move. He compared ZEC to Dogecoin and suggested that they use their profits to buy Bitcoin instead.