Blab Crypto
Zcash Surges to Nine-Year High as Mining Profitability Outpaces Bitcoin
Zcash (ZEC) capped the week at a nine‑year high of $1,155, marking a climb of more than 14% from the start of September and positioning the privacy coin as the top‑performing large‑cap asset for the period. The rally pushed its market capitalization to roughly $19.5 billion.
The surge follows a third straight weekly gain and roughly doubles the token’s value since mid‑August 2025. ZEC’s last peak, set in early 2018, hovered near $800. Today it trades around $1,155, about 11% shy of its intraday high of roughly $1,300, and has slipped 2.51% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin, by contrast, slipped nearly 3% over the same span. Its price stood at $77,295, up just over 0.4% in the preceding 24 hours.
Grayscale attributes the ZEC rally to a sharp rise in mining profitability. The asset manager notes that Zcash miner rewards are roughly twice as high as Bitcoin’s per rig per day and about four times higher per megawatt‑hour, despite the two coins using different hardware. Grayscale also observed that ZEC mining activity has more than tripled this year, a trend it says is driven by higher token prices and could reinforce network security.
The comparison also highlights the scale of the two mining ecosystems. Grayscale reports Bitcoin’s daily miner rewards average around $35 million, while Zcash’s are about $2 million. Because ZEC’s reward pool is smaller and fixed, the current profitability edge is expected to be temporary.
Retail sentiment on the social‑media platform Stocktwits has swung in favor of ZEC. Platform data shows sentiment moving from “extremely bullish” to “bullish” over the past day, while message volume about ZEC has surged more than 870% in a month. In contrast, sentiment around Bitcoin has fallen from “bearish” to “extremely bearish,” and its chatter level remains low, with an 88% month‑long increase.
Grayscale’s Zcash trust (ZCSH) has also drawn investor interest. The trust raised $179 million in 11 days of trading, bringing assets under management above $700 million. Since the launch of the exchange‑traded product, ZEC has risen 59%.
The Zcash network upgrade schedule has not altered the price dynamics. The upcoming NU5 upgrade is slated for the testnet on September 30 2021, but the current price movement is driven primarily by market sentiment and mining economics.
Overall, ZEC’s performance this week highlights the pivotal role of mining profitability in steering price action for privacy coins. While Bitcoin remains the dominant mining ecosystem in sheer scale, Zcash’s higher per‑megawatt‑hour returns have attracted new miners and bolstered network security.
The coin’s price is still 123% higher year‑to‑date, compared with an 11% decline for Bitcoin. Whether the rally will endure depends on future mining profitability, regulatory developments, and broader market conditions.
As of September 12, 2026, Zcash’s market dynamics continue to evolve, with investors and miners closely monitoring price movements and the ongoing development of the Zcash protocol.
The surge follows a third straight weekly gain and roughly doubles the token’s value since mid‑August 2025. ZEC’s last peak, set in early 2018, hovered near $800. Today it trades around $1,155, about 11% shy of its intraday high of roughly $1,300, and has slipped 2.51% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin, by contrast, slipped nearly 3% over the same span. Its price stood at $77,295, up just over 0.4% in the preceding 24 hours.
Grayscale attributes the ZEC rally to a sharp rise in mining profitability. The asset manager notes that Zcash miner rewards are roughly twice as high as Bitcoin’s per rig per day and about four times higher per megawatt‑hour, despite the two coins using different hardware. Grayscale also observed that ZEC mining activity has more than tripled this year, a trend it says is driven by higher token prices and could reinforce network security.
The comparison also highlights the scale of the two mining ecosystems. Grayscale reports Bitcoin’s daily miner rewards average around $35 million, while Zcash’s are about $2 million. Because ZEC’s reward pool is smaller and fixed, the current profitability edge is expected to be temporary.
Retail sentiment on the social‑media platform Stocktwits has swung in favor of ZEC. Platform data shows sentiment moving from “extremely bullish” to “bullish” over the past day, while message volume about ZEC has surged more than 870% in a month. In contrast, sentiment around Bitcoin has fallen from “bearish” to “extremely bearish,” and its chatter level remains low, with an 88% month‑long increase.
Grayscale’s Zcash trust (ZCSH) has also drawn investor interest. The trust raised $179 million in 11 days of trading, bringing assets under management above $700 million. Since the launch of the exchange‑traded product, ZEC has risen 59%.
The Zcash network upgrade schedule has not altered the price dynamics. The upcoming NU5 upgrade is slated for the testnet on September 30 2021, but the current price movement is driven primarily by market sentiment and mining economics.
Overall, ZEC’s performance this week highlights the pivotal role of mining profitability in steering price action for privacy coins. While Bitcoin remains the dominant mining ecosystem in sheer scale, Zcash’s higher per‑megawatt‑hour returns have attracted new miners and bolstered network security.
The coin’s price is still 123% higher year‑to‑date, compared with an 11% decline for Bitcoin. Whether the rally will endure depends on future mining profitability, regulatory developments, and broader market conditions.
As of September 12, 2026, Zcash’s market dynamics continue to evolve, with investors and miners closely monitoring price movements and the ongoing development of the Zcash protocol.
