Zcash broke above $1,000 on Friday for the first time in nearly a decade, triggering a wave of short-position liquidations as Grayscale's new ETF pulls in fresh money and mining power surges. The move rode a broader crypto bounce tied to Fed rate-cut bets, before Bitcoin reversed on a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
Zcash punched through $1,000 on Friday, touching an intraday high of $1,029 on Binance before easing to around $984 — up roughly 20% over 24 hours and its best level in nearly a decade. The privacy coin's market cap climbed toward $17 billion.
The break triggered a rush of forced buying. About $34.5 million in short bets got force-closed as the price broke through the round number, pushing total ZEC liquidations to roughly $36.6 million, according to CoinGlass data cited by Decrypt.
ETF inflows and mining power climb together
Zcash is a privacy coin, and Grayscale's Zcash ETF began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH on Aug. 25. The fund has recorded approximately $34.4 million in net inflows since its debut, according to Grayscale data cited by The Block, with its strongest day on Sept. 2, when it attracted $12.6 million.
Miners have piled in too. Zcash's computing power climbed from around 25 GSol/s in late August to briefly exceed 30 GSol/s, according to ZcashInfo data cited by The Block. But the added competition squeezed profitability: a Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro now generates an estimated $708 in gross revenue per megawatt-hour of electricity, about 3% below the $727 per MWh it produced on Aug. 24, when ZEC traded under $900, per an analysis from TheEnergyMag cited by The Block.
A rally tied to Fed rate-cut bets
The move built on Thursday's broader crypto rally after Fed Governor Christopher Waller, according to Decrypt, said he'd be "inclined to support" holding rates steady. That pulled September rate-hike odds down to 50.4% from 63.2% and set off more than $415 million in short liquidations across crypto.
Bitcoin reverses as jobs data beats forecasts
Bitcoin followed the same trigger before diverging. It reclaimed $80,000 on Thursday after Waller's remarks, then reversed Friday morning when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, well above the 56,000 consensus estimate, with unemployment holding at 4.1%.
Bitcoin fell back below $80,000 as traders priced in better odds of a hike at the Fed's Sept. 15-16 meeting, even as Zcash held on to most of its gains. Next Friday's August CPI report is now the data point traders are watching most closely.
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