Breaks into Top-20 Cryptos, Hits $600 For First Time Since 2018

Zcash ZEC$618.87 has surged back into crypto’s top 20 largest tokens by market capitalization, trading above $600 for the first time in nearly seven years.

The privacy-focused token has gained more than 1,270% year-over-year, according to CoinGecko data, pushing its market capitalization to just under $10 billion.

The rally coincides with renewed attention on privacy infrastructure and a wave of technical upgrades from the Electric Coin Company (ECC), one of the network’s developers and maintaining firms.

The rising popularity of the Zashi wallet, combined with forthcoming developments under Project Tachyon, has reignited both user activity and investor confidence, as CoinDesk Research noted in its Zcash report.

Daily trading volume has jumped to over $1.8 billion, with liquidity deepening across major venues such as Binance, Hyperliquid, and Bybit.

Futures markets have lifted in tandem. Data from CoinGlass shows Binance leading open interest at roughly $340 million, followed closely by Hyperliquid at $332 million, with Bybit in third at $157 million. Long-short ratios hover around parity (1.05–1.13), suggesting balanced market positioning rather than speculative mania.

Spot market metrics tell a complementary story. ZEC’s spot-to-futures ratio remains high, with about $801 million in 24-hour spot volume versus $4.5 billion in futures turnover — an indication that organic demand, rather than pure leverage, is driving this cycle’s movement.

Technically, the breakout above $500 represents a full retracement of the 2021 cycle’s local highs.

If the momentum holds, Zcash could mark one of the strongest annual performances of any large-cap crypto asset in 2025 — making it not just a price recovery, but a narrative reset.