Are privacy coins back? ZEC rides quantum resistance narrative to one-year peak

ZCash (ZEC) extended its rally, reaching a one-year peak above $79. The coin, which survived a years-long bear market, is making a comeback through the quantum resistance narrative. 

ZCash (ZEC) rallied in the past few weeks, rising to a one-year peak above $79. ZEC has been largely forgotten after years of a bear market and aggressive pump-and-dump events. Now, the asset is reawakening, on track to rejoin the top 100 coins and tokens. 

ZEC traded at $81.51 after a rapid mid-week expansion, rising to the highest level for the past 12 months. For the period, the token is up more than 199%. The current rally is the best performance for the token since the late 2024 price spikes.

The coin rallied to the $80 range just days after breaking above the $56 resistance threshold. The most bullish expectations are for the rally to extend above $170. Currently, ZEC stands at its highest level since Q2 2022. 

Most of the ZEC price action comes from its Binance and KuCoin pairs, legacies from previous bull markets. ZEC launched before the rapid proliferation of tokens and was among the main privacy coins. The exchanges have retained their listings, despite a general trend of removing fully anonymous assets. 

Why is ZEC rallying? 

ZEC is trading with a slight premium on Binance, as well as the Rhea Finance DEX on Near Protocol. The current trading for ZEC uses its tokenized form, and not actual coins from the ZCash network. The trading is speculative, as not all protocols reflect the actual usage of the ZCash network. 

Since April, Binance recovered its ZEC withdrawals to the ZCash chain, meaning some of the recent trading may reflect true demand for the coins. 

Nearly 70% of ZEC trading is against USDT. The coin has lost its legacy trading venues and is hardly represented on Perp DEXs. 

Additionally, ZEC has also acquired a derivative market, mostly through Binance and Bybit. Some of the recent price action may be an attack on short positions. A larger proportion of traders shorted ZEC just before its recent rally, triggering a short squeeze. 

Is ZEC quantum-resistant? 

One of the reasons for interest in ZEC is its claims to quantum resistance. ZEC has been deemed resistant to currently available quantum technology, which may in theory decode legacy coins like BTC. 

The other reason for the ZEC rally is attention from Qubic, the mining project that previously targeted Monero. The Qubic mining pool took over Monero mining, also sparking a price rally. 

However, Qubic has since set its sights on mining DOGE, leaving ZEC behind. For now, ZEC does not have to deal with concerns of a reorg or a 51% attack, the typical MO of Qubic when demonstrating its mining technology.

The involvement of Qubic’s mining pool also helped push Monero (XMR) to a permanently higher range. XMR has traded at the $297.60 range for the past month after years of hovering around $100.