ZEC rebounds strongly, escapes the weekend liquidation fallout

ZCash (ZEC) recovered faster than other assets, with minimal effects from the weekend sell-off. ZEC is back above $286 on signs of deliberate buying.

ZCash (ZEC) resumed its growth, standing above $286 in the new week. The token was almost unaffected by the weekend market crash, instead showing signs of robust buying.

ZEC recovered to over $286 on Monday, later slipping to $278.20. The privacy coin had more subdued trading volumes as crypto market participants still reeled from the weekend’s liquidations. ZEC saw volumes of just under $1B for the past day.

The ZEC recovery still supports the overall trend of privacy coins, as many of those assets are in the green. However, XMR and LTC took a step back, reflecting the general altcoin slump. For some analysts, the ZEC rally may be over, but the coin has shown significant strength.

Is a mysterious whale buying ZEC?

One of the reasons for the ZEC rally was special attention from influencers. ZEC was the only ticker directly mentioned by investor Naval Ravikant for the past few years, as he decided to talk about cryptography and privacy. As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, the renewed interest in ZEC brought the coin back to levels not see since 2018.

The recent wave of buying is also raising suggestions that the recent influencers are putting their money where their mouth is and re-accumulating ZEC. The recent ZEC expansion followed the latest tweet from Naval Ravikant, reiterating the demand for privacy.

ZEC is showing signs of accumulation that go beyond short-term market fluctuations. One of the signs is the growth of ZEC locked with maximum privacy, already taking up 26.36% of the total supply.

ZEC is flowing into the shielded Orchard pool, showing growing demand for privacy. | Source: ZEC Hub Dashboard.

The supply of ZEC in the Orchard Shielded Pool is also going vertical, signaling that the privacy narrative is taken seriously.

The recent talk about crypto surveillance accelerated the inflow into Orchard Pool, making it one of the biggest holdings of ZEC.

Retail buyers flock to Zashi wallet

ZEC still rises on a mix of retail buying and some derivative speculation. Even after the recent market shakedown, open interest for ZEC recovered to over $256M.

However, the more interesting trend for ZEC is the activity on Near Protocol and Zashi Wallet. More retail traders are moving into ZEC through decentralized accumulation.

ZEC buying accelerated on Near Intents, going through the Zashi app. More retail buyers also used decentralized swaps to acquire untraceable ZEC. | Source: Dune Analytics.

Activity on Near Intents shows ZEC buying accelerated in October, allowing for direct withdrawals to Zashi wallet.

The end goal is to acquire more ZEC in an untraceable manner, and disconnect the token from any records and identities on centralized exchanges. The Zashi app started its decentralized swaps in early October, adding to the potential for re-accumulating ZEC. The addition of the Zashi wallet option also boosted overall ZEC usage, with a growth in all types of transfers.

ZCash has been positioning to work as a simple payment coin, similar to Venmo, though with shielded transactions. For the first time, ZEC is gaining a new use case, veiled P2P retail transfers that are untraceable. The Near ecosystem is one of the hubs for switching between non-privacy coins and tokens into ZEC.

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