Should You Buy ZCash?

Last Updated May 11th 2022

20 Min Read

ZCash is not only one of the most popular privacy coins in the market.

This article takes an in-depth look at ZCash, its core areas of business, and - most importantly for prospective investors - the pros and cons which can help answer the question: Should You Buy ZCash?

ZCash is one of the most popular privacy coins out there. ZCash returned 160% for investors by the end of 2021. Just like Bitcoin (BTC), Dash (DASH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC), ZCash plays a primary role as a transactional currency.

With the potential of ZCash on the market, is investing in ZCash a good idea? Will ZCash soar again? Will all the hype associated with the use of privacy coins, is it worth investing in ZCash?

Most importantly, for novice traders and investors - what are the pros and cons which can help answer the question: should I buy ZCash?

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Contents:

ZCash at a Glance
The PROS of Buying ZCash
The CONS of Buying ZCash
How to Invest in ZCash / Where Can I Buy ZEC?
ZEC Price Predictions: What Are Analysts Saying About ZCash Coin?
The Bottom Line - Should You Buy ZCash?
FAQs

ZCash At A Glance

Launched in 2016, ZCash is a decentralized cryptocurrency that is focused on facilitating transactions privately and anonymously. Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn is the founder of ZCash. Denver-based Electric Coin Company invented ZCash and supports the technology. ZCash Foundation continuously helps build and support the privacy infrastructure for the good of the public. ZCash’s ticker symbol is ZEC.

Many people normally ask how many ZCash coins are in supply. 14,358,237.50 ZEC are circulating on the market from a maximum supply of 21,000,000 ZEC. This means that 68% of the coins have been mined with 32% left up for grabs.

ZEC Price Performance in 2016

ZEC appeared on cryptocurrency exchanges on 29th October 2016 as per data retrieved from CoinMarketCap. Since that day, the crypto trading asset has reached great milestones in terms of all-time highs and new lows. ZEC has been through bullish seasons and bearish days.

On its opening day of trading, ZEC began with a price of $4,293.37, reached an all-time high of $5,941.80, tested a new high low of $2,006, and finally settled at $2,044.47 to close the day. There was great investor interest in the asset which was reflected in its trading volume of $2,532,790 and a market capitalization of $973,672. A sharp sell-off ensued in the space of two days. This resulted in a plunge of ZEC which saw it open on 31st October 2016 at $570.91, tested a new high low of $472.73, and closed the day at $1,624.58. In the space of 2 days, ZEC shed 62.1607% of its price.

ZEC opened on 1st November 2016 at a trading price of $1,599.72 and closed at $1,333.74. After crossing $4.8 million in volume, the subsequent trading volumes went down and the price of ZEC headed south. ZEC opened on 15th November at $105.15 and closed at $109.34. The crypto trading asset experienced a huge sell-off as the market went bearish. ZEC closed the month of November at $68.69.

Any dreams of seeing a recovery in price in December were shuttered. Trading volumes decreased from $1,479,950 on 7th December to lows of $534,060 on 31st December. On the last day of the year, ZEC closed at $48.10 after opening at $50.48.

Overall, ZCash (ZEC) shed 98.8797% of the opening price for the year.

ZEC Price Performance in 2017

The year 2017 was tagged as a bullish season for cryptocurrencies. Being led by Bitcoin, the market experienced a huge spike in price. ZEC opened on 1st January at $48.05 and closed at $48.4. The digital asset closed the 1st quarter of the year on 31st March at $70.26.

ZEC opened 1st April 2017 at $70.17 and with huge interests engulfing the cryptocurrency market, rallied to end the 2nd quarter on 30th June for $307.12. In the space of 3 months, ZEC increased by as much as 338.743%. This confirmed a bullish trend in the market.

This was talk of a crackdown of cryptocurrencies particularly in Asia as China felt digital currencies are a threat to the stability of the Chinese Yuan. ZEC was immune to any unfavourable news about digital assets. The cryptocurrency opened at $299.41 on 1st July and maintained the momentum of its price, eventually settling at $277.53 on 30th September.

ZCash started gaining ground as a privacy coin and opened on 1st October 2017 for $277.35. With Bitcoin remaining bullish towards the end of the year and crossing $20,000 for the first time, ZEC saw increasing trading volumes which reached as high as $351 million on 22nd December. ZCash coin finally settled at $505.51 on the last day of the year.

Overall, the crypto trading asset returned 952.05% for investors.

ZEC Price Performance in 2018

The year 2018 could have been one of the greatest years for cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, the success digital assets enjoyed in 2017 exposed them to numerous regulatory concerns. China took the lead in September 2017 but Japan looked the other way and even allowed Binance to move its headquarters from China to its shores. Unfortunately, Japan followed China into banning cryptocurrencies which showed signs of anonymity. Considering the primary purpose of using digital assets was to privatize transactions, all assets fell short of the requirements of Japan.

As a result, ZEC opened on 1st January 2018 at $508 and closed the month at $397.88. The cryptocurrency ended 24th March at $243.33 and on 31st May with a trading price of $245.67 and a trading volume of $61 million.

By the end of the 3rd quarter (30th September), ZEC was trading at $131.99. With a bearish market due to long-term holders of digital assets opting for less-volatile assets, ZCash plummeted to new lows. ZEC opened at $80.66 on 1st December and closed the month for $56.54.

In the process, ZEC lost as much as 88.8701%.

ZEC Price Performance in 2019

After shedding close to 90% of its trading price in 2018, many analysts and experts predicted the worst for ZEC. Unfortunately for ZEC, many price forecasts came through and the crypto trading asset nearly headed into extinction zones.

On 1st January, ZCash had a trading price of $56.43 and settled at $49 by the close of the month. ZCash closed on 31st March 2019 at $58.51 and increased to $102.85 at the end of June. ZEC opened at $102.62 on 1st July. After that, the next months were not as fruitful as the first. Following in the footsteps of digital gold, ZEC plunged to $38.72 by the end of September.

On 1st December, things went from bad to worse as ZCash opened at $29.05 and on 31st December settled at $27.63. ZCash lost 51.0367% of its opening day price in 2019.

ZEC Price Performance in 2020

Despite the numerous price forecasts by tens of analysts, no single individual could predict the coronavirus market crash of 2020. This was one of the biggest market crashes of all time. The whole financial markets dropped to new high lows particularly in the peak periods of March and April. All assets were hit hard but they all recovered following an uptrend and ended the year stronger than previous years.

The privacy coin opened at $27.63 on 1st January and soared to $66.53 by the end of the month. With increased investor interest reflected through trading volumes which reached a peak of $600 million, ZEC struggled for consistency and settled at $49.31 by the close of February.

During the peak periods of the pandemic, ZEC closed March & April at $31.08 and $45.00 respectively. ZCash closed the 2nd quarter of the year at $51.58. With the distribution of the stimulus checks, several analysts pointed to an increased interest in digital assets, especially from unsophisticated traders and investors. This saw ZEC reach news milestones in trading volume. On 10th and 11th September, ZCash coin reached trading volumes of $12,056,159,801 and $11,459,834,409 respectively.

ZEC opened at $61.10 on 30th September and closed the last day of the month at $65.99. ZEC finished 2020 strong at a trading price of $63.99.

ZEC Price Performance in 2021

ZCash opened at $63.98 and closed at $56.79 on 1st January. ZEC recorded new price milestones such as $1, $2, and $3 billion in January. With Bitcoin, Ether, Binance, and Maker reaching new all-time highs, ZEC took advantage of the boom in the crypto finance space and settled at $156.92 on 31st March. The price of the privacy coin increased substantially to $245.43 to close in May.

Due to China’s stance on cryptocurrency and various news outlets pointing towards a possible crackdown on decentralized finance, ZEC dropped in price to a new low of $162.25 on 31st May.

In November Zcash saw a huge rise in the price after the announcement that Zcash's protocol will move to Proof of Stake leading to Zcash hitting a high of $276. Zcash ended 2021 with a price of $146.56.

At the time of writing, ZCash has a trading price of $89 and price forecasts point the asset to a trading price of at least $300 by the end of 2022.

But what are the primary drivers behind such projections? Let us head into the pros and cons of investing in ZCash that can better explain where ZEC is headed in the future.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

The Pros Of Buying ZCash

What are the pros of investing in ZCash?

Because of its private nature and ease of use, several analysts have opined that ZCash has a great future in the short and long term. What positives are they leaning on to make such bold statements? Here are the pros and cons of buying ZCash that can help explain if ZCash is a good investment.

✅ ZCash is Very Accessible

As a trader or investor, you wouldn’t be interested in a crypto trading asset that is hard to find online. Where do you want to find digital assets to buy, sell, and hold for the long term? Of course, the first point of call is top cryptocurrency exchanges. Fortunately, ZCash can be found on the top 20 exchanges globally. These exchanges record billions of dollars in daily volumes. ZEC can also be found on eToro for trading and investing.

Such trading platforms expose the crypto trading asset to millions of people. This is the primary reason why ZEC being inches away from many people bodes well for its price in the long term.

In the future, if ZCash takes advantage of its open-source nature and enables smart contracts, decentralized exchanges created on the platform will list the token for trading. This would expand the mileage the digital asset is currently enjoying and throw more liquidity in the asset. ZEC will continue to rake in millions of dollars which will culminate in an impressive market capitalization due to its usage on top exchanges globally.

✅ ZCash Continues to Record Impressive Trading Volumes

You have heard about trading volumes many times, but how does it impact an asset’s price? Why is trading volume important? According to Zerodha University, “Volume plays a very integral role in technical analysis as it helps us to confirm trends and patterns. Consider volumes as means to gain insights into how other participants perceive the market.” Robinhood also adds that “Volume is the number of shares changing hands or transactions executed in a particular security or market during a specific period of time.”

At Trading Education, we would like you to know that trading volume is one of the essential aspects of determining future price patterns of cryptocurrencies. More often than not, if the trading volume of an asset keeps increasing, this is a sign that investors have confidence in that particular asset. On the other hand, if trading volumes continue to drop, this is a sign that investors may have found a new asset that shows greater promise in the market in the short and long term.

ZEC currently has a trading volume of $233 million. Although this cannot be compared to the volumes of Bitcoin or Ether, such a figure confirms ZCash as a high-volume trading asset.

To give you a better understanding of trading volume, let us take a look at three of the top cryptocurrencies of the past.

Nxt (NXT) was one of the major altcoins in the crypto finance space. NXT reached an all-time high of $2.16 on 23rd December 2017 following the bullish engulfing of the crypto finance space. As of the time of writing, NXT had a trading price of $0.0042 having shed 99.8% of its all-time high. In the last 24 hours, trading volume was $77,767 which had resulted in a market capitalization of $4 million. Nxt has moved from a top 20 digital asset to its current status of 1,098 globally.

Peercoin (PPC) was trending between 2013 and 2016 as one of the top digital assets. Peercoin reached an all-time high of $13.66 on 8th October 2021. At the time of writing, PPC had a trading price of $0.35 which is 97% less than its all-time high. At the time of writing, Peercoin had a trading volume of $6,500 and has become one of the unknowns and currently stands at 837 when digital assets are ranked globally.

Auroracoin was a popular crypto coin alongside Litecoin, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and DASH. It may come as a surprise to you but Auroracoin (AUR) reached an all-time high price of $97.84 on 4th March 2014 and an all-time low of $0.005645 on 6th October 2019. At the time of writing, Auroracoin has a trading price of $5.06 and a trading volume of $2 million.

You could see from the statistics provided that there are digital assets which record trading volumes lower than the price of Ether and Bitcoin. This means that as the years waned, cryptocurrencies with new and innovative issuing authorities joined the market. With a lack of vision on the part of the developers of Auroracoin, Nxt, and Peercoin, novice traders and investors are shocked as to the price highs they once reached. With more coins being added to the market, these digital assets are almost done. They are headed near extinction zones and it would take a miracle for them to survive.

With ZCash's (ZEC) trading volume under perspective, the crypto trading asset will continue to be in existence in 2022 and the years beyond.

✅ ZCash Has Maintained its Track Record as a Secured Network

After being released to the public in 2016, ZCash has continued to operate without incident. The two organizations behind the project, Electric Coin Company, and the ZCash Foundation have put in place essential security tools to be able to salvage any potential attacks that may come their way.

To put it simply, in the last 5 years, there is no record of a security bug discovered in the protocol of ZCash. Aside from this, the ZCash network has experienced no network downtime like what happened to the TRON Network where it had to be paused for 120 minutes before being restarted.

With a great team behind the project who have the certifications of credible academic institutions behind them such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ZCash will continue to help people maintain privacy in their transactions in a very secure way.

✅ ZCash Still Maintains a Strong Privacy Feature

One of the greatest features of the ZCash protocol is its privacy. Through its option of shielding transactions, users can hide the identity of transfers. In the long term, this does not only help in terms of protecting the identity of senders and receivers.

It also helps block malicious actors from targeting a particular address with a high volume transaction. This is extremely beneficial for business organizations involved in business transactions (employee payrolls and payment of inventory) as it helps protect confidential information which should only be seen by certain members of the team.

This is the main reason why ZCash continues to thrive and forms great partnerships that can make use of its service. This has been extremely beneficial to its novel token, ZEC since traders and investors are interested in cryptocurrencies with a thriving blockchain platform.

✅ ZCash Has Fostered Successful Partnerships over the Years

In 2017, Apple approved ZCash as a payment option on iOS. Jaxx is a multi-digital platform that offers cryptocurrency support for Apple. It announced that it is adding ZCash to its wallet. The primary reason why ZCash was added was that in the fall of 2016, Apple asked Jaxx to remove privacy-focused cryptocurrency DASH from its iOS applications. ZCash took DASHs place as a legitimate digital currency due to DASHs involvement in crime-related activities.

As per the details as to why ZCash was chosen, it was pointed out that, ZCash caters to a high degree of anonymity and financial privacy, which is significant to all iOS users.

The team behind ZCash opined that they aim to pursue more such partnerships to strengthen the growth of the cryptocurrency. As per data retrieved from Statista, in April 2017, there were 728 million iPhone users globally with China and the United States leading the pack. This provides evidence that ZCash is available to close to 1 billion people. The success of the use of ZCash will bring more partnerships. This means that ZEC will be involved in millions of transactions. In the long term, this helps ZCash as a privacy blockchain and its novel token, ZEC as a private coin.

In 2018, ZCash allied with StarkWare. StarkWare Industries develops STARKS. STARKS is a safe and secure cryptographic proof system that does not give out any toxins. Speaking on the partnership, a representative of StarkWare pointed out that, “We will be partnering with ZCash to improve scalability and privacy in our blockchains with the newly developed STARK technology, to provide cryptographic proofs that are zero-knowledge, succinct, transparent, and post-quantum blockchain.”

In a nutshell, the primary purpose of this partnership is to provide a secure platform for users to make transactions smoothly. This adds to the legitimacy and authenticity of ZCash as a platform people trust to provide a relatively better speed of processing and privacy.

✅ Zcash Is an Open-Source Blockchain

As an open-source blockchain, ZCash can flow with the times and enable smart contracts.

In November 2021 was announced that Zcash's protocol will move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake within the next three years. According to the organization, the update will mitigate negative pressure on the ZEC price by eliminating miners who “immediately liquidate” the token for Bitcoin or cash.

If Zcash could trigger smart contracts soon this will help ZEC flow in an ecosystem where it provides liquidity to decentralized lending and exchanges in addition to its function as a transactional currency.

Check Out: 15 Reasons Why You Should Buy Zcash Today

The Cons Of Buying ZCash

The pitfalls of investing in ZCash

Despite the numerous benefits of investing in ZCash, you cannot look at one side and use it to determine the outcome of a cryptocurrency. You must weigh the cons against the pros to have a clearer view of the market. Let us take an in-depth look at the cons of investing in ZCash.

❌ Question Marks around Its Decentralization

Many people patronize cryptocurrencies as a result of their decentralized nature. This means that no single entity controls the number of coins on a particular market. Neither do intermediaries control how we go about our financial activities. There are whispers that 10% of the supply of ZEC is in the hands of the team behind the project. This means that they have the right to control the price patterns of the cryptocurrency.

This does not bode well for the project. People want to see projects that are decentralized from top to bottom. This will enable them to make huge sums of investments in particular crypto trading assets. If there is stiff control in how ZCash goes about its operations, in the not-too-distant future, it may lose its grip on the market. If more privacy coins that offer absolute decentralization hit the market, ZCash may fall behind when the adoption of privacy coins is brought to the discussion table.

❌ ZCash Is in a Crowded Privacy Digital Currency Market

Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies that facilitate transactions over blockchains in an anonymous manner. Privacy coins on the market include but are not limited to Monero (XRM), Dash (DASH), Verge (XVG), Horizen (ZEN), and Beam (BEAM). Aside from these, several DeFi coins are also privacy coins. This means that ZCash is not in a market of its own. The development team behind ZEC has formed credible partnerships that expose the cryptocurrency but they can do more.

Dash continues to form awesome partnerships and is normally used as a transactional currency due to the X11 mining algorithm that sees it scale relatively faster than other blockchains. In addition to this, DASH has a huge user base in Southern America where citizens of countries such as Colombia and Venezuela use it in their daily financial activities.

Monero is also one of the top cryptocurrencies and records great daily volumes. This communicates huge liquidity being poured into the asset. XRM also commands an impressive user base which is reflected in its daily transaction count.

Heading into the future, if more partnerships are not formed to expose ZCash to millions of people across several payment systems, development teams behind other privacy coins can take a substantial part of the privacy coin market. This may see ZCash lose its position as a top 50 asset and drop further down the list in terms of global digital assets.

❌ ASIC Mining a Potential Threat

ASIC stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit and this is the equipment used for mining coins whose issuing authorities run on a proof-of-work blockchain such as Bitcoin. Hardware and crypto mining product giant Bitmain has released a ZCash ASIC mining hardware. This hardware is capable of mining on Equihash-secured networks such as ZCash. Due to the more than 10,000 coins on the market, miners have split their attention across the board to see which coins will bring them great mining rewards. This is the primary reason why several miners have not paid attention to this unique technology created by Bitmain.

If more miners purchase Bitmain’s hardware, they are reaping all the mining rewards due to the efficiency of those systems. Unfortunately, this would make it difficult for miners who employ Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to mine certain numbers of coins.

With time, ZEC mining will be likened to Bitcoin which has now been centralized. To be able to mine BTC, you have to join a mining pool and if care is not taken, this is the path ZEC will be falling into. With mining powers in the hands of a significant few, discussions about ZEC mining on social media will go down. In the long term, this could harm the price of the cryptocurrency since few people will be benefiting from the rewards.

❌ ZCash Has Been Blacklisted by EUROPOL

There is uncertainty around the cryptocurrency market. No one knows whether Bitcoin and other altcoins such as ZEC will be in existence in the next 10 years. This has caused several traders and investors to engage in calculated risk. Before a major crackdown happens, ZCash is not looking good in the eyes of certain authorities. One of these authorities is EUROPOL. EUROPOL released its report titled Europol’s 2020 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment on Monday, 5th October 2020.

According to the report, Bitcoin continues to remain the most popular method for illegal transactions due to its ease of use, reputation, and adoption. “Monero is gradually becoming the most established privacy coin for dark web transactions, followed by zcash and dash.”

Although more privacy coins were mentioned in the report, ZCash featuring in such a report taints the image of the cryptocurrency and its blockchain technology. This harms future partnerships. With the credibility of the European Union’s Law Enforcement Agency, any legal company that wants to maintain privacy in its business transactions may think associating with ZCash will automatically put them under the spotlight for an investigation into criminal activities.

This is one of the areas you should not take your eyes off as an investor. With more coins being added, you can be rest assured that other developers are doing all they can to provide an innovative technology that would clean up the system and provide privacy without any illegal activities. ZCash is a great project but may take a deep hit if it continues to appear in subsequent reports by other regulatory agencies.

How To Invest in ZCash / Where Can I Buy ZEC?

There are many trading platforms where you can invest in ZCash. eToro has been in business for a long time and it’s the preferred exchange of our choice for your transactions. eToro has operated for 15 years without incident and has a user-friendly platform that will help your trading activities. Follow the steps below and you would be set on the way towards buying your first ZEC.

Open an account by signing up with your real name, email & residential address, and contact number.

Verify your account by uploading essential documents such as identity cards and proof of address.

Deposit funds in the form of EURO, GBP, or USD by choosing from a range of payment options.

Navigate to ZEC PAGE and purchase your first coins.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

ZEC Price Predictions: What Are Analysts Saying About ZCash Coin?

Although several analysts and experts have made bold forecasts, what are the real statistics provided? Let us take a look at price forecasts that provide answers to, ZEC price prediction 2022, ZEC price prediction 2025, what will ZEC be worth by 2030 / ZEC price prediction 2030 and what will ZEC be worth by the end of 2021?

According to CryptoNewsz, ZEC could command a trading price on the downside of $300 and a high of around $360 to close out 2022. As per technical analysis, several analysts foresee 2023 as a bear market for cryptos but CryptoNewsz still foresees ZEC trading at a relatively better price than 2022. ZCash could trade for a coin on the low at $360 and a high of $430 in 2023 and increase to $530 by the year’s end of 2024. In the long term, the cryptocurrency news and prediction website predict ZCash to reach at least $600 by the end of 2026.

According to Coin Price Forecast, ZEC can reach prices of $190 (2022), $266 (2023), and $286 (2024) in the short term. In the long term, ZCash could command prices of $314 (2025), $366 (2026), $410 (2027), $467 (2028), $523 (2029), and $578 (2030). The experts estimate ZCash to command trading prices of $556 and $603 by the end of 2031 and 2032 respectively.

The Bottom Line - Should You Buy ZCash?

YES! ZCash is one of the best privacy coins you can consider buying. According to analysts, ZEC price will continue rising in the future.

With the prediction of the experts in sight, you must know that all investments come down to two factors. They are risks and rewards. You must always ask the question, do the potential rewards of investing in ZCash exceed the possible consequences?

ZCash certainly has loads of risk factors such as 10% of the total supply of coins being in the hands of the company behind the project, it's associated with internet crimes by EUROPOL, and being in a crowded market.

With that said, ZCash continues to gain popularity in the space. ZCash has formed strong partnerships with Apple and Starkware, can trigger smart contracts, is finite in supply, can be found on all the high volume cryptocurrency exchanges, and continues to record huge daily trading volumes.

So, is ZCash a good investment? YES! ZCash is a good investment. Despite the ups and downs in its price history, the cryptocurrency continues to rake in huge returns for its investors. With the laws of demand and supply likely to take hold of the digital asset, ZCash could rally to new price milestones in the future.