What to Know:
- •Zcash trading volume through Electric Coin Co.'s Zashi wallet surpassed $9.5 million since late August, with nearly $1 million swapped into ZEC last week alone
- •The company released multiple protocol upgrades including ZIP 48 multisig support and zcashd 6.10.0, while Zashi wallet reached 12,100 unique iOS installs and 4,830 Android installs
- •Swihart credited months of commentary from crypto figures including Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz and investor Naval Ravikant, alongside growing concerns about surveillance and financial privacy
Technical Foundation Meets Usability Push
Swihart anchored his analysis in what he described as first principles. "Simply, Zcash is the most ideologically and technologically sound form of private money," he wrote in a lengthy post on X. He pointed to zero-knowledge cryptography and a protocol that has "galvanized and matured through many difficult years," but emphasized that new usability features over the past 12 to 18 months made the difference.
The Zashi consumer wallet emerged as what Swihart called a material unlock. When paired with Keystone hardware wallet support for cold storage, NEAR Intents for swapping and spending ZEC, and Flexa point-of-sale integrations, the wallet addressed friction points that had long limited adoption.
He also referenced a scaling path "to billions with Tachyon," a roadmap he credited to engineer Daira Hopwood.
Swihart directed readers to recent investment theses published before the price movement—"Why Zcash Now" by Arjun Khemani, "My Zcash investment thesis" by Frank Braun, and "The case for a small allocation to ZEC" by S. Saint-Léger. He presented these as evidence that fundamentals had been building even before markets reacted. "The token price and market cap have seen rises in the past, but this time, it really is different," he wrote. "We reached a tipping point."
When asked repeatedly why the shift happened now, Swihart acknowledged uncertainty.
"The truth is that 'I can't say for sure,'" he wrote. "Perhaps it's as simple as 'Zcash's time has come.' But maybe it's because the elements that spark and fuel the spread of a movement were finally in place."
Privacy Narrative Gains Traction Amid Surveillance Concerns
Swihart sketched what he described as a stark backdrop of political polarization, expanding censorship, and pervasive surveillance. He cited street cameras, proposed client-side scanning, and digital ID programs as factors that naturally elevate the appeal of private, bearer-style money. "Many are now waking up and realizing that we need tools to protect our liberties," he wrote. "As decentralized private money, Zcash provides shelter from this storm."
Amplification came from what Swihart called a mix of public voices and behind-the-scenes connectors. He credited months of regular Zcash commentary from Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, new engagement from investor Naval Ravikant, and long-standing advocacy from Balaji Srinivasan. He also named builders and investors in adjacent ecosystems, including Tom Howard, Akshay BD, and Juan Benet. "These leaders are the spark that ignited the fire," Swihart wrote, adding that broader crypto influencers including Gainzy, Cryptopathic, and Cobie "have been buzzing."
Memes played a role in distribution. Swihart cited older Zcash slogans such as "1 ZEC = 7 BTC," "ZODL," and "Privacy is Normal," alongside newer phrases circulating last week including "encrypted Bitcoin," "$1k ZEC," and "$50k ZEC." He pointed to the rise of an account called GenZCash as what he termed a "memetic warfare division" producing short-form video content.
He also referenced Zcash lore—Edward Snowden's involvement in a past cryptographic ceremony, and founder Zooko Wilcox's early connections to Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto. Even the chart became part of the narrative, Swihart suggested. "ZEC recently broke above long-standing trends against both fiat and BTC," he wrote.
Development Metrics Show Accelerating Activity
Beyond narrative, Swihart published concrete product metrics and protocol milestones. Zashi's swap and payments flow since late August totaled more than $9.5 million in ZEC calculated at $163 per token, with average daily throughput of 1,509 ZEC. Last week alone saw just under $1 million swapped into ZEC.
Distribution data showed 12,100 unique iOS installs with 14,400 total downloads and a 4.9-star rating.
Android reached 4,830 installs, or 24,200 total including open beta testing, with a 4.347-star Play Store rating.
On the protocol side, Electric Coin Co. finished ZIP 48 transparent multisig support in the Rust crates, added the same support to zcash-devtool, ran the Key Holder Organization ceremony for network upgrade 6.1 on mainnet, set consensus rules for the upgrade, and released zcashd 6.10.0 along with supporting Rust crates.
The near-term roadmap focuses on removing friction in everyday use without diluting privacy guarantees, Swihart said. Planned features include rotating ephemeral transparent addresses for one-time use cases such as swaps and Coinbase onramp flows, the ability to mark received transactions as trusted to reduce confirmation requirements before spending, and a draft Zcash Improvement Proposal for key rotation covering ZSA issuance keys and lockbox FROST multisig disbursement keys targeted at network upgrade 7. Review work on QEDit's ZSA pull requests to the Orchard crate is also underway.
Forthcoming Zashi wallet features include ephemeral transparent addresses for all NEAR-intent-supported functionalities, marking transactions as trusted, and continued development on transparent address rotation, Ledger hardware wallet support, duress and decoy wallet features, multi-account support, and interface personalization.
Activity extended beyond code repositories last week. Swihart said he and long-time Zcash engineer known as Str4d spent the week in Singapore in meetings around Token2049 and the Network State conference to support Zcash, Zashi, Tachyon, and Cross Link with the Shielded Labs team. He and Wilcox spoke at the Network State Conference, and community organizers held a Zcash day at the Network School featuring a roundtable with Srinivasan.
Closing Thoughts
The cumulative effect, in Swihart's analysis, created a feedback loop between product shipments, public discourse, and market structure. "Fuel + environment + spark + spread = tipping point," he wrote.