Zcash co-founder @EliBenSasson has set an ambitious target: $ZEC at $5,000 before the end of 2026. The call comes as the privacy-focused cryptocurrency trades around $1,500, having staged one
Zcash co-founder @EliBenSasson has set an ambitious target: $ZEC at $5,000 before the end of 2026. The call comes as the privacy-focused cryptocurrency trades around $1,500, having staged one of the more dramatic recoveries in this market cycle.
The backdrop to the prediction is a sustained wave of large-holder buying. According to on-chain data tracked by Onchain Lens, one whale pulled roughly 12,870 ZEC, worth approximately $13.65 million, from major exchanges including Binance, OKX, Kraken, and Gate within a single week, before moving the entire position into a fresh self-custody wallet. A separate accumulation event saw another wallet add 36,360 ZEC, worth around $41.6 million, over six days from the same group of exchanges.
The project's own management has acknowledged the unusual activity but describes the recent volatility as organic, pointing to a gap between on-chain accumulation signals and broader market sentiment. That explanation has not fully satisfied institutional observers, some of whom have openly questioned why liquidity is flowing so aggressively into a privacy coin at this scale.
Supporting fundamentals have also improved. Zcash mining economics strengthened considerably in 2026, with network participation rising more than 250% as higher profitability attracted miners. Grayscale estimated daily miner rewards for Zcash near $2 million, and noted the protocol generated roughly four times Bitcoin's rewards per megawatt-hour, improving its relative energy economics.
The figure is bold but not without historical context. Zcash briefly touched close to $6,000 in its first days of trading in October 2016, driven by extreme early scarcity and speculative excitement around its zero-knowledge privacy technology. That level has not been revisited since. More recently, @EliBenSasson has been vocal about what he sees as two baseline requirements for the next phase of crypto adoption: affordable privacy and post-quantum security, both areas where Zcash is positioning itself as a leader.
Additional catalysts include the Grayscale spot Zcash ETF filing under the ticker ZCSH, which has drawn fresh institutional attention, and the network's NU7 upgrade, which is set to cut block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. Zcash also recently completed its Ironwood shielded pool upgrade, which introduced formally verified proof circuits following a prior vulnerability.
Whether $ZEC can close a roughly 230% gap to reach $5,000 by December remains an open question. The co-founder's conviction is clear; the market's verdict is still being written.
Sources:U.Today: Zcash Co-Founder on Privacy and Post-Quantum SecurityAMBCrypto: Zcash Whale Accumulation and Mining EconomicsKuCoin: Zcash NU7 Upgrade and Grayscale ETF
