Zcash's Parabolic Rally Drives Short Squeeze Volatility
Zcash (ZEC) has experienced a recent 3.3% decline over the last 21 hours, but this drop is likely a normal pullback following a parabolic rally driven by ETFs and short squeezes.
The extreme uptrend that led ZEC to break above $1,000 for the first time since 2016 has made a 24-hour drawdown of 3-5% seem like consolidation rather than a regime change.
The launch of Grayscale's spot ETF ZCSH on NYSE Arca on August 25 attracted over $400-$700 million in assets under management, making it one of the fastest-growing altcoin ETPs.
Multiple reports note that ZEC rallied roughly 370% in three months and over 2,300% year-on-year, hitting a nine-year high near $1,155-$1,250 with a market cap around $19-$20 billion, putting it in the top-10 coins by value.
The mining-profitability narrative has also driven interest in ZEC, as recent data shows that Zcash mining revenue per machine is roughly 2x Bitcoin's and revenue per megawatt-hour about 4x BTC's, leading to a more than 2.5x increase in hashrate year-to-date.