Key Takeaways
- ZCSH listed on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25 and crossed $500 million in assets by Sept. 8.
- Outside inflows totaled just over $70 million, while DCG International added roughly $100 million in ZEC.
- Zcash traded above $1,200 this week, a level last seen in the fourth quarter of 2016.
What the Filing Actually Says
Grayscale told followers on Sept. 8 that the world’s only Zcash fund had surpassed $500 million in assets under management (AUM), holding more than 550,000 ZEC. “Private money is attracting real capital,” the asset manager wrote.
The Form 8-K filed the same day is more specific and more interesting.
According to the filing, DCG International Investments Ltd. acquired roughly $100 million of ZCSH shares by exchanging 85,705.32563297 ZEC through an authorized participant. The filing then describes exactly who that buyer is:
DCG International Investments Ltd. is a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, Inc. DCG is the indirect parent company of Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC, the Fund’s sponsor. Accordingly, the Investor is an affiliate of both the Sponsor and the Fund.
In other words, a fifth of the headline milestone was an in-kind transfer from inside the same corporate family.
The Split: $100 Million Related, $70 Million Outside
Grayscale did not attempt to hide the breakdown, with Steve Vanourny, head of index at Grayscale, saying in the release:
[The offering] includes ZCSH seeing cumulative inflows of more than $70 million in the two weeks since launching as an ETP, in addition to the Investor’s $100 million investment.
That is the number worth isolating. Genuine third-party demand for the first U.S. spot Zcash exchange-traded fund (ETF) ran a little over $70 million in a fortnight. The affiliate contribution was larger than everything the open market brought in combined.
None of this is improper, and an in-kind swap of ZEC for shares is a routine creation mechanism. But it changes what the $500 million figure describes. It is a measure of the fund’s scale, not a clean readout of investor appetite, and the distinction matters for anyone using AUM as a proxy for how far the privacy trade has spread.
The trajectory is real regardless and Bitcoin.com News reported recently that the fund held $414.7 million, and net assets reached about $463 million by the end of that week before the affiliate purchase pushed the total past half a billion.
Why ZEC Keeps Pulling Capital
Zcash breached $1,200 on Sunday with an intraday peak near $1,249, its highest level since late 2016, carrying a 12-month gain above 2,200% and a market capitalization around $20 billion. One short seller, Garrett Jin, sat roughly $25.7 million underwater on the move.
That run is happening while the majors have stalled with bitcoin’s price stuck near $79,000 and repeatedly rejected below $80,000 as traders wait on August inflation data and the Sept. 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Capital that would normally chase bitcoin’s price momentum has had little momentum to chase, and privacy assets have absorbed some of it.
Arthur Hayes, Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan and Alliance DAO’s Qiao Wang have all publicly endorsed ZEC in recent weeks, with Hougan naming zcash one of three assets to own for the next decade. Grayscale’s own research has argued that artificial intelligence makes financial surveillance more effective by linking public addresses to exchanges, counterparties and wallet behavior, which is the demand case the firm keeps returning to.
