Here’s why Zcash price is up 150% this week

Zcash price skyrocketed to a 3-year high this week as fresh catalysts reignited investor interest and significantly boosted market activity around the token.

According to data from crypto.news Zcash (ZEC) rallied to an intraday high of $151 on Oct. 2, Asian time, before settling at $141 as of press time. At this price, it is up 61% over the past 24 hours and nearly 150% over the week. The last time ZEC traded near this level was on April 29, 2022.

Daily trading for ZEC rose sharply from under $100 million seen on Sep. 25 to $1.27 billion at the time of writing, indicating robust demand from traders. The rally also drove its market cap from $950 million to as high as $2.45 billion within the weekly period. 

A look at CoinGlass data reveals that demand from derivatives traders also contributed significantly to the bullish market sentiment. Open interest in the futures market jumped from $19 million to over $142 million at the time of writing, while the long/short ratio stood above 1, indicating that most traders were leaning bullish, a dynamic that likely amplified speculative buying pressure.

Zcash gains this week were supported by an announcement from decentralized exchange ThorSwap, which revealed it added support for the token on the platform.

The development made it possible for users to swap ZEC directly for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and other major altcoins. This is an important step as it opens the door to decentralized and non-custodial cross-chain trading for the privacy coin, which has been under pressure with many centralized exchanges dropping it in response to regulatory concerns.

Investor interest also got a boost after Grayscale opened its Zcash Trust for private placement for eligible accredited investors. While the Trust had been around since 2017, the renewed access lets accredited investors get exposure to ZEC without having to deal with buying, storing, or securing the token themselves.

As such, renewed institutional interest in the Trust may be more than just a short-term signal; it suggests that investors are becoming more open to regulated exposure to privacy coins like ZEC. 

If this trend continues, it could quietly lay the groundwork for future ETF discussions, potentially driving even greater demand from institutional investors.

Furthermore, ZEC’s rally coincided with the broader “Uptober” rally, with strong performance from leading assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The overall positive sentiment, combined with ZEC’s specific drivers, amplified the upward momentum and attracted broader market attention.

On the daily chart, Zcash price confirmed a breakout from a multi-year cup and handle pattern that had been forming on the daily chart. In technical analysis, a breakout from this pattern leads to strong, sustained gains, especially if catalyzed by bullish developments such as the Throswap news in the case of Zcash.

The highly bullish golden cross that forms when the 50-day SMA crosses above the 200-day one has also appeared on the chart, which lends credibility to the notion that momentum has now shifted in favor of bulls.

Momentum indicators like the MACD and RSI have also turned upward, adding to the reasons traders have grown bullish on the token. Although the RSI has moved well past the overbought threshold, this does not always signal an imminent pullback, especially given that community sentiment has shifted to extremely bullish following recent developments.

At press time, ZEC was testing the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level. A breakout above this zone could encourage bulls to target $195.63, the next key retracement level and a potential leg higher for the token.

On the other hand, if ZEC fails to hold the $101 support, it would invalidate the current bullish setup. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $145.80.