Privacy-focused Bitcoin alternative Zcash experienced a dramatic surge on Friday, skyrocketing approximately 33% within a few hours and triggering over $51 million in short position liquidations. The token’s price jumped from $536 just a day earlier to nearly $735 on Friday afternoon. Although it has since settled to around $666 at the time of writing, this still marks a 25% increase over the past 24 hours.
This rapid price movement made Zcash-related positions the third-most liquidated in the crypto market on Friday, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to CoinGlass data, over $59 million worth of Zcash positions — including longs — were liquidated, compared to $150 million in liquidations for Bitcoin and $146 million for Ethereum.
Once a relatively obscure cryptocurrency, Zcash has been on an almost nonstop upward streak for over a month. The token, which hovered around $40 for more than three years, began its rally in early October and has continued to gain momentum ever since. In just five weeks, its price has increased tenfold. Data from CoinGecko shows that Friday’s peak represented Zcash’s highest price since January 2018. Despite this strong performance, the current price remains 79% below its all-time high of $3,191, set back in 2016.
Analysts suggest that Zcash’s recent rally is largely driven by increasing concerns around Bitcoin’s privacy and decentralization. This apprehension comes amid Bitcoin’s growing acceptance by corporations and political entities, which some believe could impact its privacy features. As the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Zcash currently holds a valuation of approximately $11 billion.
While Zcash has steadily climbed over recent weeks, Friday’s sharp surge may also have been influenced by a significant legal event in the United States related to privacy and cryptocurrency software development. On Thursday, Keonne Rodriguez, a developer of the privacy-centric Bitcoin app Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitter. This sentence, which was the maximum possible, was requested by the Department of Justice under President Trump’s administration, despite other DOJ statements pledging to protect the rights of crypto developers.
The sentencing drew widespread criticism from leading figures in the crypto and privacy communities, who viewed the decision as overly harsh and detrimental to privacy-focused innovation.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/crypto/privacy-coin-zcash-continues-historic-surge-nearing-8-year-high-price/
