Zcash price USD

What is Zcash?

Zcash is a cryptocurrency that is unlike most other coins these days. Back in the early days of digital coins, crypto users believed that paying with digital currencies are guaranteed to offer anonymity. In fact, back then, this really was the case. However, crypto transactions turned out to be fairly easy to trace once blockchain explorers were created, and due to the exchanges being forced to introduce KYC procedures, it became easy to determine who is who and what are they doing with their coins.

This is why privacy coins were invented—cryptos that use special, custom-made technologies to hide transactions and their users’ identities, offering true privacy of payment. Of course, this can be a dangerous tool in the hands of online criminals, which is why governments and regulators around the world started forcing exchanges to drop privacy coins, which many of them did in order to continue operating. Zcash suffered the same fate, and it is now available on a rather limited number of platforms.

A Brief History on the Price of Zcash

Zcash is just one of many cryptocurrencies that have experienced an eventful trading history. The cryptocurrency market is known to be much more volatile than many others, and this has been reflected in the behaviour of Zcash in the last few years. In this section of the article, we will examine the recent price action of Zcash, and discuss what factors will impact its value going forward.

Key News for Zcash

There are many factors that can impact the price of Zcash, and the recent news that Zcash will move away from its Proof of Work consensus to a more energy-efficient Proof of Stake model is big news. The full details of this have yet to be confirmed, but this dichotomy between the two approaches to cryptocurrency will define the industry in the years to come.

Proof of Stake is considered to be a superior way of running a cryptocurrency in many ways, not least because it reduces the amount of energy required. However, Bitcoin remains the biggest and most valuable cryptocurrency by a considerable distance and continues to rely on the traditional Proof of Work approach. At present, it is difficult to see Bitcoin being dislodged from the head of the cryptocurrency market, but this is not inconceivable if other tokens demonstrate a more practical operational foundation.

It will be interesting to see if more news develops on this possibility in the coming weeks and months.

Zcash Timeline

• 2013:

Development work on Zcash begins. A Johns Hopkins professor and his students become the initial validators of the platform. (Zcash price: N/A)

• October 2016:

Zcash is mined for the first time. (Zcash price: N/A)

• 12 May 2017: 

In a challenging security climate, Zcash declares invulnerability to ransomware attacks such as the WannaCry program, thanks to its security features. (Zcash price: $95)

• 1 March 2018:

An employee of the Zcash Company discovers a critical bug in the system, which could have left Zcash vulnerable to counterfeiting and double-spending. This glitch is soon eliminated. (Zcash price: $400)

• 28 October 2018: 

The bug fix for the problem is formally released by the developers of Zcash. (Zcash price: $123)

• 21 February 2019: 

The Zcash Company is permanently rebranded to the Electric Coin Company. (Zcash price: $54)

• 24 September 2019: 

As the regulation of cryptos continues to evolve, the ECC announces that Zcash complies with all global money laundering and terrorism financing laws. (Zcash price: $36)

• 8 June 2020: 

Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis adds support for Zcash. It is now possible to track and observe transaction values, as well as identify the sender or receiver address for virtually all transactions on the Zcash blockchain. (Zcash price: $53)

• 12-27 October 2020: 

ECC announces the Bootstrap Project, a new nonprofit initiative. It is reported that all ECC shares have been donated to Bootstrap. (Zcash price: $61)

• 30 March 2021: 

The Bootstrap transfer is officially recognised in legal documentation and is now a critical entity in the Zcash project. (Zcash price: $155)

Compare Zcash with Fiat Currencies, Commodities and Crypto

As the Zcash project continues to develop and cryptocurrencies mature as an investment class, it is natural to compare them with some of the existing investments available on the market. With this in mind, in this section we will compare Zcash with the US dollar, Gold and Bitcoin, and see how the token has fared against some of the top investments.

Compare Zcash with Gold

The price of Zcash per unit is certainly significantly lower than Gold, which is seen as a traditional store of value, often for wealthy traders and investors. With this in mind, Zcash can be seen as having a lower barrier of entry than Gold, which makes it easier for people from a variety of financial backgrounds to invest in. Both Gold and Zcash have increased in value during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is notable that Zcash has significantly outperformed Gold. While there has been a correction in Zcash recently, its performance over the last two years has certainly been impressive, and technical analysis suggests that it may be about to enter a bull market.

Compare Zcash with the US dollar

Zcash can be readily compared with the US dollar, and both are seen as stores of value and also payment systems. The dollar has stabilised over the last couple of years, but hasn’t performed particularly impressively, losing ground to the pound for example. Meanwhile, Zcash has massively increased in value over the same period, and thus those choosing to invest in Zcash as opposed to the dollar would certainly have made a wise decision. In the longer term, there are question marks about whether or not the dollar will maintain its reserve status, although it remains the top fiat currency, even though it hasn’t provided the returns associated with Zcash and other cryptos.

Compare Zcash with Bitcoin

Zcash has tripled Bitcoin’s returns to investors year to date, which is obviously massive news for the cryptocurrency. In many ways, Zcash is difficult to compare with Bitcoin, as the market-leading cryptocurrency is worth an astronomically higher amount of money, and its market capitalisation is hundreds of times that of Zcash. Nonetheless, Zcash and other cryptocurrencies have tended to receive a boost from Bitcoin’s bull runs, and this has certainly been the case in 2020 and 2021, with Zcash even exceeding the performance of Bitcoin.

Zcash Future Price Predictions

The first thing to note with future price prediction for Zcash is that the cryptocurrency market is inherently unpredictable; indeed, this could be said of any commodities market, or any investment whatsoever. Cryptocurrencies, though, have been particularly volatile, which is excellent for many investors, as they have increased massively in value. But investors require caution considering that cryptos have also experienced significant corrections.

The general cryptocurrency market has entered a pattern of gains following July 2021, after a short period of correction. Many technical analysts have suggested that this means Zcash will continue to gain in value in the months and years to come, but this is entirely unpredictable and certainly cannot be guaranteed. What is certain is that it has stabilised at its current price levels recently.

Zcash Price in 2021

Zcash is intended to be a store of value similar to its cousin Bitcoin, with its 21-million unit cap attempting to stave off inflation. While its inflation remains higher than Bitcoin currently, it should be noted that the cryptocurrency is earlier in its lifecycle, and thus most market observers believe that it will diminish over time.

Daily technical chart analysis of Zcash indicates that it has received significant support for its current price in recent weeks. This suggests that it could be about to enter a bullish pattern, which will see the token gaining in value once more.

Central to this process will be the continuing influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global financial system, as this has undoubtedly had a massive impact on the value of cryptocurrencies. While an economic recovery is undoubtedly underway, there is still uncertainty associated with it, not least because there could be further lockdowns in the future.

 Any form of economic uncertainty has tended to be positive for cryptocurrencies such as Zcash, and in some ways, they have replaced Gold and other traditional store-of-value commodities in this climate. $138 wasone analyst’s prediction for ZEC’s price by the end of 2021.

Zcash Price Predictions for 2024

As 2024 unfolds, experts and market observers believe that cryptos will stabilise as a strong investment. One of the primary factors in this will be the increasing investment in the cryptocurrency space by a wide variety of investors, which will see more money flowing into the market. 

This is a big positive for Zcash, while the murmurings that it will also change its consensus protocol could also have a big impact on the future of the token. Cryptocurrency continues to evolve, and it is clear that Zcash will be part of this process.

In 2024, ZEC could hit $190, according to experts.

Beyond 2022 for Zcash

One of the interesting aspects of the Zcash project going forward is that the Canopy stage instigated by its developers would seem to be very positive for its future. Canopy allocates 20% of the block reward to three entities: the new Major Grants Fund (8%), ECC (7%) and the Zcash Foundation (5%), and it has been asserted that this will result in a new community development fund, to last through to 2024.

The development team asserts that this will “foster a diverse and resilient ecosystem with greater decentralization” in the Zcash project. This would seem to be excellent news for the project, and certainly suggests that Zcash will be around for the long haul. There are many positive factors associated with this cryptocurrency, and it definitely appears to be one that could increase significantly in value over the next few years.

However, it should also be noted that many factors impact on the market, and the regulatory environment associated with cryptocurrency continues to develop and mature. Cryptos are still a relatively young asset class, and one that continues to evolve. Thus, it is difficult to make concrete predictions regarding the future, except to say that cryptocurrency is certainly here to stay. ZEC’s price could go as high as $479 over the next five years, according to some expert analysts.

Zcash Price Conclusion

In conclusion, Zcash has been an excellent investment, securing massive profits for many traders. The future of the coin appears to be positive, particularly if the ambitious plans of its developers can be implemented successfully. 

The increasing flow of institutional money into cryptocurrency is also bullish for cryptos, and Zcash is set to be one of the major beneficiaries from this process. We can reasonably expect Zcash to be worth significantly more money than it is currently by 2025, as this embryonic platform continues to develop.