Zcash turns 10 as privacy coin rides upgrades and ETF interest

A decade after mainnet launch, Zcash heads into its anniversary with a fresh upgrade, a billion-dollar ETF moment and a governance debate Zcash is turning 10. The privacy-focused protocol marks a decade since its mainnet launch on October 28, 2016. Most crypto projects from that era are now trivia questions. Zcash arrives at the milestone with a recent upgrade, another one days away and a spot ETF on a major US exchange. ZEC is trading between $1,270 and $1,300 as of mid-to-late October 2026. That puts its market capitalization at nearly $22 billion. A decade of upgrades, in order Zcash’s core pitch has stayed the same since launch: optional privacy. Users can send ordinary transparent transactions, or they can shield them using zero-knowledge proofs. Think of a zero-knowledge proof as showing a bouncer you’re over 21 without handing over your ID. The network confirms a transaction is valid without seeing who sent what to whom. The 2016 launch relied on a trusted setup ceremony with six participants. One of them was Edward Snowden, which is about as on-brand as a privacy coin’s origin story gets. Then came the upgrades. Sapling arrived in October 2018 and made shielded transactions...