Zcash Sees Bullish Assessment from Grayscale Amid Emerging Privacy Narrative

Grayscale has given a bullish assessment to Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC), which has surged from $60 to $1,500 over the past year. According to Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale, the magnitude of Zcash's sharp move can be justified by its low starting valuation and potentially large addressable market.

At this point last year, Zcash's market capitalization represented less than 0.1% of Bitcoin's (CRYPTO: BTC) and now accounts for almost 1.5%. Grayscale argues that while substantial, this level is not historically extreme.

In comparison, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is currently valued at nearly 6% of Bitcoin's market cap, while Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Dash each reached at least 3% of Bitcoin's valuation during the 2017-2018 cycle. This history suggests that Zcash could potentially take additional share without reaching unprecedented relative valuations.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan also identifies privacy as an emerging long-term crypto narrative, with Zcash being a key player in this space. Hougan argues that the investment case for privacy developing into a major pillar of crypto adoption is strong and that Zcash is making a case that privacy deserves a place among crypto's most important long-term themes.