From CryptoPotato · By Chayanika Deka
ZEC has been one of the best-performing assets this year. The privacy-centric coin briefly neared $1,700 in September before suffering a pullback, which has prompted market commentators to speculate about the risk of a deeper price correction.
CryptoPatel, for one, believes the token may have formed a major top, and the “party might be over.”
Rally Under Pressure
ZEC has lost more than 20% over the past month alone despite some of the major ecosystem developments. On the institutional side of things, Grayscale’s ZEC ETF saw $41.09 million in inflows last week, and ended a three-week stretch of outflows. The week didn’t get off to a great start, as $10.45 million left on Monday.
But sentiment picked up the following day, bringing in $1.61 million. Inflows then jumped to $15.18 million on Wednesday and $14.23 million on Thursday. Friday closed the week on an even stronger note, with $20.52 million flowing in. The late-week turnaround helped push the fund back into positive territory for the first time in four weeks.
Then there is Zcash Network Upgrade 7 (NU7), which is scheduled for mainnet activation on November 5, 2026. It reduces the target block time by two-thirds, dropping from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.
Additionally, Zcash developers are working on a new security feature in order to protect wallets against future quantum computing threats. Roman Akhtariev, who works on Zakura, said post-quantum signature opcodes are planned for January, 2027. The update would allow the network to verify hash-based signatures, which are designed to resist attacks from quantum computers. The goal is to make it harder for attackers to exploit public keys and forge transaction approvals to steal funds.
Still, ZEC has struggled to regain its footing. As such, CryptoPatel identified $834 as a critical support level. A downside below it could get “ugly,” pushing prices toward $480, $300, $200, and even $74.
ZEC, an AI Hedge?
Despite the short-term turbulence, Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss believes that ZEC could climb above $5,000 per coin, as he described it as an “AI hedge in crypto.” In a recent interview with Maxine Desalle, he put Zcash’s market value at around $25 billion, or roughly 2% of Bitcoin’s market cap. Winklevoss added that if ZEC reached 10% of Bitcoin’s value, its price could rise fivefold.
“I would never consider Zcash a trade, but it is the other side of the AI coin. If you’re looking for the AI hedge in crypto or the quantum hedge in crypto, that’s going to be Zcash.”
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