First Spot Zcash ETF? Grayscale Pushes Privacy Coin Into ETF Race
Grayscale has filed to transform its Zcash Trust right into a spot exchange-traded fund, organising a possible first for regulated publicity to a privateness coin within the U.S. ETF market. If accredited and listed, the product would give buyers exchange-traded entry to ZEC with out requiring them to custody the asset instantly.
The proposed ETF would maintain ZEC, the native asset of the Zcash community, and is predicted to listing on NYSE Arca below the ticker “ZCSH.” The filing says the belief could be renamed Grayscale Zcash Trust ETF as soon as the registration turns into efficient and the shares are listed.
Grayscale Brings Zcash Into the Spot ETF Race
The submitting pushes Zcash right into a class that has to this point been dominated by bigger, extra liquid crypto property. Spot Bitcoin ETFs and spot Ether ETFs created a template for regulated crypto publicity, however a Zcash product would check whether or not that construction can lengthen to an asset whose market id is intently tied to privacy-preserving transactions.
Grayscale’s registration assertion describes the product in direct phrases. “The Trust’s objective is to carry ‘ZEC’, that are digital property which can be created and transmitted by way of the operations of the peer-to-peer Zcash Network, a decentralized community of computer systems that operates on cryptographic protocols. The Trust’s funding goal is for the worth of the Shares (based mostly on ZEC per Share) to mirror the worth of ZEC held by the Trust, as decided by reference to the Index Price, much less the Trust’s bills and different liabilities.”
The submitting additionally stresses that the shares will not be the identical as holding ZEC instantly. “While an funding within the Shares will not be a direct funding in ZEC, the Shares are designed to supply buyers with a cheap and handy technique to acquire funding publicity to ZEC. Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC is the sponsor of the Trust.”
The belief is structured as a Delaware statutory belief. Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC is listed as sponsor, CSC Delaware Trust Company as trustee, The Bank of New York Mellon as switch agent and administrator, Coinbase, Inc. as prime dealer, and Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC as custodian.
Trust Held Nearly 391,104 ZEC at Quarter-End
The present Grayscale Zcash Trust already holds a fabric ZEC place. In its newest quarterly submitting, the belief reported 391,103.88769118 ZEC as of March 31, 2026, down from 393,522.33134026 ZEC on the finish of 2025. Using the submitting’s acknowledged truthful worth of $254.27 per ZEC, that place was price roughly $99.45 million at quarter-end, with Coinbase recognized because the principal marketplace for valuation functions.
The registration assertion says creations and redemptions would happen in blocks of 10,000 shares, known as baskets. As of Nov. 21, 2025, roughly 817.0998 ZEC had been required to create one basket of 10,000 shares.
For now, the submitting describes a cash-order mannequin. Under that construction, a certified participant deposits or receives money, whereas a third-party liquidity supplier sources or receives the ZEC. The belief will not be presently in a position to course of in-kind creations and redemptions with approved individuals, although NYSE Arca could later search approval for that mannequin.
Privacy-Coin Context Returns to the Foreground
The submitting follows a notable shift within the regulatory backdrop round Zcash. The SEC concluded its evaluation of the Zcash Foundation with out recommending enforcement motion or different modifications, easing a long-running concern round one of many crypto market’s best-known privacy-focused networks.
The Zcash Foundation mentioned: “We are happy to announce that the SEC has concluded its evaluation and knowledgeable us that it doesn’t intend to suggest any enforcement motion or different modifications in opposition to Zcash Foundation relating to this matter. This consequence displays our dedication to transparency and compliance with relevant regulatory necessities. Zcash Foundation stays targeted on advancing privacy-preserving monetary infrastructure for the general public good.”
The SEC’s conclusion doesn’t quantity to ETF approval. It does, nonetheless, change the setting for Grayscale’s try to convey a privacy-coin product right into a regulated public-market wrapper.
At press time, ZEC traded at $551.44.
