ZEC (Zcash) is up 4.00% in 24 hours, with a market cap of approximately $6.688 billion.

According to Gate News Bot on December 09, citing CoinMarketCap data, as of press time, ZEC (Zcash) is trading at $407.08, up 4.00% in the past 24 hours, with a high of $423.28 and a low of $302.75. The 24-hour trading volume reached $1.31 billion. The current market cap is approximately $6.688 billion, an increase of $257 million compared to yesterday.

Zcash is the first cryptocurrency to develop zero-knowledge cryptography for private peer-to-peer payments, offering end-to-end encryption protection. As a decentralized protocol, ZEC gives users full control over their funds, featuring faster transaction speeds and lower fees compared to Bitcoin. The asset has received support from leading industry institutions, is listed on multiple exchanges, and offers a range of ecosystem applications such as the Zashi mobile wallet.

Recent key updates on ZEC:

1️⃣ Dynamic Fee Model Proposal Drives Network Upgrade Expectations

The dynamic fee market proposal put forward by Shielded Labs has become a core factor driving the rise in ZEC’s price. The proposal suggests abandoning the network’s long-standing fixed fee mechanism (currently 1,000 zatoshi) and moving to a dynamic structure based on the median of transactions in the past 50 blocks. The new model will calculate fees according to actual transaction activity and simulate stable load through synthetic comparables, making fees more predictable and better able to resist spam attacks. This technical upgrade aims to improve network efficiency, ease congestion, and protect user privacy and cost experience. It is expected to be implemented in phases: first with off-chain monitoring, then as a wallet strategy, and finally as a consensus change after approval. The proposal avoids the complexity of EIP-1559 while maintaining Zcash’s privacy features.

2️⃣ Institutional Investment Continues to Strengthen

Institutional adoption has risen significantly, providing strong capital support for ZEC. The Winklevoss brothers’ fund has accumulated 200,000 ZEC since November last year, worth over $80 million, aiming to ultimately hold 5% of circulating supply. Reliance Global has also shifted its entire digital asset portfolio into ZEC. Cypherpunk Technologies has established a $100 million ZEC treasury and now holds over 200,000 ZEC. In addition, traders on platforms such as HyperLiquid continue to increase long positions, and several major institutional investors have expanded their 10x leveraged ZEC long positions. These institutional moves indicate that professional investors are optimistic about ZEC’s mid-term prospects, forming strong price support.

3️⃣ Regulatory Breakthroughs and Increased Policy Attention

There are positive signals in the privacy coin policy environment. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a roundtable on December 15 regarding cryptocurrency, financial monitoring, and privacy, with ZEC founder Zooko Wilcox giving a keynote speech. The meeting aims to evaluate the regulatory weight of privacy technology in SEC rulemaking. If consensus is reached that zero-knowledge proofs meet compliance obligations, this flexibility could be incorporated into regulatory frameworks for digital assets. Grayscale has submitted an application to regulators to convert the Zcash Trust into a spot ETF tracking the CoinDesk price index; if approved, it would be a significant breakthrough in the privacy coin sector. Furthermore, the ZEC ecosystem is expanding, with Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox serving as an advisor to US anonymous phone service provider Phreeli, which uses zero-knowledge proofs for bill payment verification. These regulatory positives and ecosystem expansions are boosting market expectations for ZEC’s policy outlook.

4️⃣ Short-term Price Fluctuations and Technical Support

Recently, ZEC has repeatedly tested the key resistance level around $420, with technical indicators showing convergence signals. The seven-day price fluctuation range has been between $306 and $420, indicating that the market has entered the end stage of structural convergence. The 24-hour spot trading volume climbed to $1.28 billion, futures trading volume surged to $5.5 billion, and open interest increased by 21%. Capital inflows from both spot and futures typically indicate traders are actively taking on risk. However, it should be noted that the privacy coin narrative faces challenges: blockchain tracking platform Arkham has launched on-chain monitoring for Zcash, marking more than half of its shielded and unshielded transactions, covering $420 billion in transaction volume. This de-anonymization may impact the privacy coin narrative.

This information is not investment advice; please be aware of market volatility risks when investing.