Zcash Surges to Decade-Highs Amid Record Crypto Liquidations
Zcash has been making waves in the cryptocurrency market, surging approximately 20% on September 4 to touch an intraday high near $1,023 to $1,051. This price level marks the highest ZEC has traded in nearly a decade.
The sudden increase in price triggered a wave of short liquidations that contributed to total crypto liquidations reaching around $212 million. A significant portion of this came from Zcash perpetual futures, totaling between $34.5 million and $44 million over recent trading sessions.
This surge is largely attributed to the launch of Grayscale's ZCSH spot ETF on August 25, which accumulated over $400 million in assets within two weeks of listing. The ETF's sustained buying pressure in the spot market squeezed leveraged shorts that had built up during the post-vulnerability pessimism.
The May 2026 Orchard shielded pool vulnerability revealed a critical bug in the protocol's newest privacy layer, rattling confidence and giving short sellers a thesis to lean on. The fact that ZEC is now trading at nearly decade-high prices just four months later speaks to how quickly crypto narratives can flip.