Can Zcash Keep Climbing? Galaxy Digital Breaks Down the Privacy Coin’s 8x Surge

Zcash (ZEC) has staged a jaw-dropping comeback, surging 8x in just a month to trade at $463.98 as of early November 2025. Galaxy Digital’s latest research note, dropped on November 4, 2025, unpacks what’s behind this privacy coin’s meteoric rise and whether it’s got the legs to go higher—or if it’s just another crypto bubble primed to pop.

• Price Boom: ZEC skyrocketed 8x in a month to $463.98, fueled by a privacy-first market narrative.
• Shielded Strength: Over 30% of ZEC supply (4.9M coins) is now shielded, enhancing anonymity.
• Hidden Dangers: A tiny node count (100–120), technical complexity, and regulatory risks could halt the rally.

What’s Fueling Zcash’s 2025 Price Surge?

The crypto market is buzzing about privacy again, and Zcash is reaping the rewards. Galaxy Digital nails it down to a perfect storm of factors, starting with a cultural shift back to valuing anonymity in transactions. After years of playing second fiddle to flashier altcoins, ZEC’s focus on shielding user data is hitting a nerve. As Galaxy puts it, this rally has “succeeded in forcing the market to reprice privacy.” The raw stats are hard to ignore: over 30% of ZEC’s total supply—about 4.9 million coins—is now in shielded pools, a milestone for the network. For those new to the game, shielded pools use cutting-edge zero-knowledge proofs called zk-SNARKs to hide transaction details like sender, recipient, and amount. The bigger the pool, the tougher it is to trace anything, creating a stronger anonymity set—a group of transactions that can’t be distinguished from one another.

Galaxy’s take is crystal clear on this point:

“The larger the shielded pool, the harder it is to trace flows… A bigger anonymity set equals stronger privacy.” – Galaxy Digital analyst

This isn’t just theoretical. Transparent ZEC supply—where transactions are visible on the blockchain—has shrunk from 14 million to roughly 11.4 million this year, showing users are actively opting for privacy. Most of this shielded growth flows through the Orchard protocol, a 2022 upgrade that beefed up Zcash’s privacy tech. If privacy is crypto’s killer app, as some claim, Zcash is finally making a case for itself.

Usability Gets a Glow-Up with Zashi Wallet

Historically, Zcash stumbled hard on user experience. Early tools were a nightmare—think trying to assemble IKEA furniture with no instructions. That’s changing fast. The Electric Coin Company, the brains behind ZEC, launched the Zashi wallet in 2024 and rolled out major updates in 2025, slashing the learning curve for shielded transactions. Using Zashi now feels like sending a secure, encrypted message on your phone—simple, quick, and private. Galaxy calls this a game-changer:

“Zcash is gaining visibility as its privacy stack finally reaches consumer-grade usability… As more ZEC gets shielded, the anonymity set grows and allows Zcash to become more private.” – Galaxy Digital

What’s more, Zashi integrates NEAR Protocol’s “Intents” layer, a fancy way of saying it enables seamless cross-chain swaps and transfers without exposing your data. Want to move ZEC privately across blockchains? It’s no longer a headache. This kind of interoperability isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a sign Zcash is catching up to broader blockchain trends. For the average user—not just the tinfoil-hat crowd—this could be the nudge to actually use ZEC, not just hodl it.

Market Mania: Liquidity and Leverage on Hyperliquid

Market dynamics are also pouring fuel on Zcash’s fire. Hyperliquid, a derivatives trading platform, recently listed ZEC perpetuals—essentially futures contracts with no expiration date, letting traders bet on price moves with leverage. By October 30, 2025, open interest hit a hefty $115 million, signaling serious speculative interest. Think of perpetuals as a way to gamble on Zcash’s price without ever settling the bet, which can turbocharge price swings when traders pile in or panic out. Galaxy notes this liquidity boost is amplifying ZEC’s visibility, but let’s be real—leveraged gambling in crypto often ends with more tears than Teslas.

The risk here is stark. If overleveraged positions get liquidated en masse, today’s moonshot could turn into tomorrow’s crater. And beware of Twitter prophets screaming “ZEC to $1,000!” with zero evidence. Price pumps built on hot air always crash harder, and we’re not here to peddle that nonsense. The market repricing privacy is one thing; blind hype is another.

Technical Triumphs and Troubles: Zcash’s Brittle Backbone

On the tech front, Zcash is a paradox of brilliance and fragility. Like Bitcoin, it runs on proof-of-work with a 21 million coin cap and block times around 75 seconds. Unlike Bitcoin, its obsession with encrypted transfers via zk-SNARKs makes it a beast to operate. Verifying shielded transactions demands serious hardware muscle—way more than running a Bitcoin node. That’s why Zcash’s full node count is a measly 100 to 120, compared to Bitcoin’s tens of thousands or even Monero’s thousands. For a network preaching decentralization, that’s a glaring chink in the armor. One glitch, one targeted attack, or even a bad internet day could wreak havoc.

Galaxy doesn’t mince words, calling Zcash’s small footprint “brittle.” Scaling shielded transactions without sacrificing privacy or decentralization is like juggling chainsaws. Running a Zcash node often means beefy servers and patience—syncing can take days, unlike Bitcoin’s lighter load. This isn’t just a nerdy detail; it’s a fundamental hurdle to mass adoption. A decentralized network is only as strong as its weakest link, and Zcash’s links are looking thin.

That said, the Zcash team isn’t twiddling their thumbs. Past upgrades like Sapling in 2018, NU5/Orchard in 2022, and NU6 with lockboxes in 2024 have steadily tightened privacy and eased usability. Looking forward, Galaxy spotlights “Project Tachyon,” led by developer Sean Bowe, as a potential lifeline. Picture it as Zcash’s answer to Solana’s Firedancer—a deep rework targeting throughput and sync efficiency without reinventing the shielded protocol. If it pans out, it could tackle some of these growing pains. But let’s not bet the farm—ambitious crypto projects often overpromise and underdeliver.

Regulatory Storm Clouds: Privacy’s Double-Edged Sword

Zooming out, Zcash’s rise can’t escape the bigger privacy debate in crypto. Back in Bitcoin’s early days, even Satoshi Nakamoto admitted the network’s anonymity was limited. Fast forward to 2025, and governments worldwide are ramping up financial surveillance—think CBDC rollouts or EU crackdowns on unhosted wallets. Privacy coins like Zcash and Monero are either freedom fighters or public enemies, depending on your perspective. Galaxy flags this as a massive risk: political and regulatory backlash could kneecap Zcash overnight. We’ve seen it before—delistings in places like South Korea and Japan in the late 2010s, citing money laundering fears.

Even if Zashi makes Zcash grandma-friendly, no app can shield it from a government banhammer. A single policy shift could see exchanges drop ZEC faster than a hot potato, or worse, criminalize its use outright. With only a sliver of nodes keeping the network alive, Zcash is more exposed than most to these external shocks. Privacy might be a human right to cypherpunks, but to regulators, it’s often a red flag. This tug-of-war isn’t just Zcash’s problem—it’s the entire privacy coin niche’s Achilles’ heel.

Can Zcash Sustain This Momentum? A Devil’s Advocate View

So, can Zcash keep climbing? Galaxy smartly dodges price predictions—no hopium peddling here, which we respect. Instead, they pin ZEC’s future on three pillars: sustained user adoption through tools like Zashi, growth in shielded supply for stronger anonymity, and real network upgrades like Project Tachyon. If these click, Zcash could carve out a lasting spot as the go-to privacy coin. But that’s a hell of a lot of “ifs” in a market that thrives on crushing overleveraged dreams. For a deeper dive into Galaxy’s perspective, check out their recent analysis on Zcash’s potential trajectory.

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a second. Is privacy enough to justify Zcash’s existence when Bitcoin remains king of digital gold with an unmatched network effect? Or when Ethereum and other altcoins offer versatility with smart contracts and DeFi? Zcash’s laser focus on anonymity is noble, but it might also be its ceiling—mainstream adoption could stay out of reach if regulators keep swinging. And from a Bitcoin maximalist lens, let’s be honest: ZEC’s privacy tech is slick, but Bitcoin’s simplicity and dominance might still render altcoins like this niche experiments at best.

Still, Zcash isn’t just a coin; it’s a battering ram against fiat surveillance, accelerating the shift to decentralized freedom—if it can survive the fight. It embodies the cypherpunk ethos that birthed Bitcoin, daring us to rethink privacy in a world hell-bent on tracking every penny. But freedom tech comes at a cost—technical complexity, regulatory crosshairs, and the ever-looming risk of market mania turning to dust. Zcash is riding high right now, but whether it cements itself as privacy’s champion or fizzles under pressure is up in the air. One thing’s certain: the market is waking up to privacy as a feature, not a flaw. Are we ready to pay the price of true anonymity?

Key Questions and Takeaways on Zcash’s Wild Ride

• Why Is Zcash Price Surging in 2025?
  A mix of improved usability with the Zashi wallet, seamless cross-chain swaps via NEAR Intents, over 30% of ZEC supply shielded for better privacy, and market boosts like Hyperliquid’s $115 million in perpetuals open interest are driving the 8x rally.
• How Do Zcash’s Shielded Pools Enhance Privacy?
  Shielded pools use zk-SNARKs to obscure transaction details. With 4.9 million ZEC shielded, the larger anonymity set makes tracing flows much harder, bolstering user privacy.
• What Risks Could Derail Zcash’s Momentum?
  A tiny node count of 100–120 leaves the network fragile, leveraged trades on platforms like Hyperliquid could collapse liquidity, and political crackdowns on privacy coins pose a constant threat.
• What’s Needed for Zcash to Keep Growing?
  Continued user adoption of tools like Zashi, more ZEC moving to shielded pools, and network upgrades like Project Tachyon for efficiency and scalability could sustain the upward trend.
• How Does Zcash Compare to Bitcoin and Monero?
  Zcash mimics Bitcoin’s proof-of-work and 21 million cap but prioritizes encrypted transfers. It lags far behind Bitcoin (tens of thousands of nodes) and Monero (thousands) in node count due to the heavy resource demands of shielded transactions.