One of the market’s most influential voices has caused a stir, grabbing financial headlines in the sector. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes issued a strong recommendation to investors this Wednesday: it is necessary to shield their Zcash assets by immediately withdrawing them from centralized exchanges (CEXs).
Hayes explains that keeping these tokens on third-party platforms defeats the coin’s fundamental purpose.
Hayes’ recommendation comes at a moment of extreme turbulence for the ZEC price. The token has starred in a financial rollercoaster, reaching a high of $723 on Saturday, then plunging to $504 on Sunday, and briefly rebounding to $677 on Monday.
At the time of writing, ZEC is trading near $450, marking a 37% drop from its peak, validating analysts’ warnings of an imminent correction due to an overbought Relative Strength Index (RSI).
The Battle for Privacy: Transparent vs. Shielded Addresses
Hayes’ urgency to shield their Zcash assets is not just a security strategy; it is also a technical necessity to use the network as designed. Zcash’s privacy model is unique because it supports two types of addresses: “t-addresses” (transparent), which function like a public Bitcoin wallet, and “z-addresses” (shielded), which use zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to obscure the sender, receiver, and transaction amount.
The structural problem lies in the fact that most CEXs only support the transparent version of ZEC. This means operations performed within or from an exchange are fully traceable on the blockchain.
By urging users to shield their Zcash assets in self-custody wallets, Hayes echoes a historic critique from the cypherpunk community: exchange custody undermines anonymity. Furthermore, it exposes holders to risks of fund freezes, aggressive “Know Your Customer” (KYC) policies, and potential delistings—risks that Monero (XMR) has already faced in the recent past.
Despite the price correction, interest in privacy remains alive. Zcash maintains a market capitalization of $7.4 billion and surprisingly still registers a 5% rise over the last seven days.
Meanwhile, Monero also shows resilience with a 7% weekly increase, suggesting that beyond speculation, the demand for financial sovereignty and the need to shield their Zcash assets remain powerful narratives in the current crypto ecosystem.
The information presented in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as investment advice. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile and may involve significant risks. We recommend conducting your own analysis.