Zcash Surges 10% Amid Paradigm Endorsement and Upcoming Upgrade

Zcash (ZEC) surged 10% in a day to trade at $1,467, making it the top performer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies. The coin's momentum is partly due to recent whale activity and endorsements from prominent figures in the industry.

Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang praised Zcash's inflation-funded developer fund as an 'elegant mechanism' to address public goods funding dilemmas. This model redirects a portion of block mining rewards towards supporting developer activities, including upgrades, security research, and ecosystem public goods.

Huang also acknowledged the importance of this fund in the current era of exponential tech capabilities driven by AI and quantum development. However, he expressed concerns about relying solely on coin-holder voting to govern Zcash treasury, which introduces market unpredictability and undermines long-term trust in ZEC as a stable monetary asset.

Market analyst Ali believes that ZEC's momentum could pave the way for an $1,800 price target by year-end. The upcoming September 30 NU7 upgrade will bring faster transaction finality and full quantum resistance to the network.