Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has experienced a significant surge of 30% in the last 24 hours. This rally follows a prediction by crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, who foresees the token eventually reaching $10,000.
Zcash (ZEC) saw its price climb from $272 to a peak of $355. This increase occurred in the hours after Hayes shared his bullish prediction on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. Over the same period, Zcash outperformed all other top 50 tokens by market capitalization.
This is not the first instance where Hayes's predictions have been associated with a token's price movement. At the August WebX 2025 conference in Tokyo, he stated that Hyperliquid's HYPE token could increase 126 times over the next three years. This forecast subsequently led to a 4% spike for HYPE.
Hayes's Endorsement Fuels Trader FOMO
Crypto trader and contributor to Binance Square, AB Kuai Dong, speculated in an X post on Sunday that the Zcash rally was likely influenced by Arthur Hayes.
Dong suggested that the endorsement from a "legendary Silicon Valley investor" prompted widespread adoption, leading traders to "follow the trend and join in, subsequently triggering a full month’s FOMO market frenzy."
Concurrently, a user known as Clemente, a crypto trader and board member of the treasury company K9Strategy, admitted to investing in Zcash due to overwhelming "fomo." Clemente stated, "I couldn’t keep myself sidelined to this run."
Privacy Tokens Gain Increased Attention
Meanwhile, a trader and investor operating under the handle JonnyJpegs speculated that the rally might also be driven by a broader user interest in privacy-related tokens. This trend could be amplified as more governments reportedly attempt to clamp down on encryption and other privacy-enhancing technologies.
Zcash has demonstrated remarkable performance, staging a 490% rally in the last 30 days. Additionally, the token crossed the $5 billion market capitalization threshold for the first time on Sunday, according to data from CoinGecko.
The Zcash token was initially launched in October 2016. It utilizes an encrypted ledger that incorporates zero-knowledge proofs. This technology allows for transactions to be either transparent and publicly viewable or fully shielded, ensuring the privacy of both the sender and receiver, as well as the transaction amount.
Monero (XMR), another prominent privacy-focused coin and the leading privacy coin by market capitalization, also saw gains. It increased by 3.6% in the last 24 hours, reaching $346. Despite its performance, Monero remains delisted or restricted on most major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and OKX, as well as several European trading platforms.