Zcash skyrocketed over 10 times in just a few weeks, briefly returning to the large market cap realm with a valuation exceeding $10 billion.
On Coinbase, ZEC became the most searched asset in mid-November, surpassing Bitcoin and XRP.
This surge was supported by several real changes: the 2024 halving, increased protected balances, and a funding model controlled by NU6.1 holders.
Analysts have mixed opinions, with some calling this a top explosion, while others believe it is a result of a repricing of "responsible" privacy coins under stricter anti-money laundering rules.
Zcash was not expected to be a significant topic in this market cycle. For most of the past few years, this privacy coin has remained in the background, while Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, and a series of rotating meme coins dominated headlines and trading activity.
Then November arrived.
In just a few days, Zcash (ZEC) climbed to the top of Coinbase's search rankings. A screenshot shared by Zcash advisor Thor Torrens showed that ZEC attracted about 52,000 searches on the platform. This surpassed XRP and Bitcoin, which recorded approximately 41,000 and 39,000 searches, respectively.
Meanwhile, the price of ZEC has surged, achieving a four-digit percentage increase over the past year, briefly pushing the token back into the large market cap category.
For many traders, this token, seen as a relic of the last privacy cycle, now poses a simple question: How did Zcash go from low profile to the most searched in just a month?
Did you know? Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox is a long-time cypherpunk who worked on DigiCash in the 1990s and helped create Tahoe-LAFS, the BLAKE2 hash function, and the concept known as the Zooko triangle before the launch of ZEC.
For readers who haven't followed for years, it's worth recalling what Zcash actually is.
It was launched in 2016 as a Bitcoin-style proof-of-work (PoW) chain, capped at 21 million coins, built around cutting-edge zero-knowledge proofs. These allow users to send transparent transactions, similar to Bitcoin, or completely protected transactions, where amounts and addresses are hidden but still mathematically verifiable.
For a time, it was seen as a "scientific project with a price," supported by heavyweight cryptographers and privacy advocates.
Then the spotlight shifted. As regulators intensified scrutiny of privacy coins, several major exchanges delisted or restricted trading, with Monero (XMR) gradually becoming the default choice for die-hard privacy users.
ZEC fell in market cap rankings, daily trading volume decreased, and social discussions faded. By early 2024, despite experiencing two halving events and multiple network upgrades, it looked more like a relic of an earlier era rather than a competitor in a new narrative.
The surge in November did not come out of nowhere. Zcash has quietly reshaped its foundational story over the past two years, while most of the market was not paying attention.
In terms of currency, the most recent halving will occur on November 23, 2024, reducing the block reward from 3.125 ZEC to 1.5625 ZEC, cutting the daily new issuance from about 3,600 coins to about 1,800 coins. With a fixed supply of 21 million and the halving cycle now running in a tighter Blossom roadmap, ZEC began to be discussed by some in the community as "sound money."
At the underlying level, actual usage is also changing. Coinbase research indicates that the amount of ZEC held in protected addresses increased from about 1.7 million coins to about 4.5 million coins over the past year, with over 1 million coins entering the protected pool in just three weeks.
Overall, more than 27% of the circulating supply is now protected, with other trackers showing that protected supply briefly peaked above 5 million coins. This indicates that users are not just trading code.
Meanwhile, new funding and governance structures are coming online. The NU6.1 upgrade, set to activate on November 24, 2025, will allocate 8% of block rewards to community grants and 12% to a fund controlled by holders. This gives ZEC holders a formal say in how millions of dollars in development funds will be deployed over the next few years, until the next halving in 2028.
These changes collectively laid the groundwork for a repricing, well before the surge in search volume.
Did you know? The Electric Coin Company commissioned Rand Europe to study the criminal use of Zcash. Researchers found that ZEC's presence on the dark web is minimal, while Bitcoin remains the primary currency for illegal activities.
The spark for all this is a combination of narrative and timing.
After a high-profile vulnerability in Monero, privacy suddenly returned to the spotlight, shaking confidence in the default choice in the space. Commentators began looking for an alternative with positive governance and a clear upgrade path. With planned network updates underway and the backdrop of the halving narrative, Zcash positioned itself as a candidate to fill this gap.
Meanwhile, regulators continue to strengthen oversight of opaque fund flows. New anti-money laundering (AML) rules, stronger travel rule enforcement, and increased scrutiny of mixers have made "complete darkness" harder to defend, while Zcash's optional privacy and auditable view key model seem to align better with compliance requirements.
A competitor's misstep, a returning theme, and a protocol that can be positioned as a "responsible" privacy coin have provided ZEC with a new story, just as traders are looking for the next big narrative.
According to data shared by Zcash advisor Torrens, ZEC recorded about 52,000 individual searches on Coinbase in mid-November, while XRP and Bitcoin recorded approximately 41,000 and 39,000 searches, respectively.
This is a clear snapshot of retail curiosity, with thousands of users typing "Zcash" into the search bar of one of the largest fiat on-ramps in the world.
Outside of exchanges, social data from X and Reddit showed similar increases in mentions. Overall, November was the month Zcash re-entered retail consciousness.
Looking at the charts, it's easy to call this a top explosion. From late September to early November, ZEC surged from over $70 to over $700, at one point rising over 1000% this fall, increasing over 500% in a month, before sliding about 30% from its local high.
Coinbase noted that Zcash futures trading volume approached $10 billion on November 7, with derivatives platforms reporting an increase in open interest as traders flocked to the trend. For those who have experienced past altcoin frenzies, these indicators typically appear during periods of speculative positioning.
But there is also a viewpoint that November was more about repricing than pure frenzy peaks. The 2024 halving has already halved the supply growth, and protected usage now accounts for over a quarter of the circulating supply, while NU6.1 introduced a clearer and more transparent funding model through the next halving cycle.
If these fundamentals hold, some analysts believe that any severe pullback could represent a reset at a higher range, although the outcome remains uncertain. The difficulty lies in always discerning the narrative from lasting changes in real-time.
Did you know? Before Zcash launched in October 2016, over-the-counter (OTC) futures contracts associated with the coin surged from about $18 to $261 in six weeks, an increase of about 1300%, purely driven by expectations of its privacy technology.
Zcash's moment in November is not just about an old token; it also reflects the broader crypto market.
The market is accustomed to rediscovering those that have quietly improved their economics, strengthened governance, and waited for the right macro story to catch up. In this case, the story revolves around privacy. Rising concerns over data exposure, stricter anti-money laundering enforcement, and fatigue with fully transparent chains have created space for "partial privacy" alternatives that do not seem to be immediate regulatory targets.
For readers, the insights are twofold.
First, exchange search data is a useful early signal of retail attention shifts, but it often appears when fear of missing out (FOMO) reaches a peak.
Second, themes in crypto never really disappear; they are cyclical. If Zcash can transform its legacy reputation into a new narrative, other forgotten categories may not be as dead as their charts suggest.
Related: "Institutions have arrived" — US Bancorp launches stablecoin pilot on Stellar network
Original article: “How Zcash Went from Low Profile Token to the Most Searched Asset in November 2025”
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