Some longtime crypto enthusiasts are becoming increasingly disillusioned with Bitcoin: they're irritated that the coin no longer provides the privacy they valued,
has gone mainstream, attracting celebrities and politicians, and is generally declining. Against this backdrop, The Wall Street Journal reported on the sharp rise of the Zcash cryptocurrency, which is being compared to an early version of Bitcoin.
What is Zcash?
The token was founded in 2016 by a group of scientists and engineers from MIT and Johns Hopkins University. It's essentially a copy of Bitcoin, but with enhanced anonymity: while Bitcoin is merely pseudonymous—all transactions are visible on a public ledger and can be traced back to a specific individual—Zcash allows the sender, recipient, and transaction amount to be completely hidden using encryption, the newspaper notes. Users can also generate "view keys" to voluntarily disclose transaction details to regulators or auditors. Businesses, for example, could use this feature to protect payroll data and supplier relationships.
It's these capabilities that have earned the coin the nickname "secret Bitcoin," notes the WSJ. Supporters also say Zcash could counter attempts by authoritarian governments to use financial surveillance to identify dissidents.
"It feels like Bitcoin circa 2013," says Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Grayscale Investments, which created the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund. "Zcash is what Bitcoin should be. What Bitcoin was originally intended to be," echoes Tushar Jain, co-founder of venture capital firm Multicoin Capital.
Who's already invested?
Significant investors in Zcash include brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who have been called the world's first crypto billionaires. In November 2025, they invested $50 million in the launch of Cypherpunk Technologies, a crypto wallet company that holds Zcash. The company has now accumulated over 300,000 tokens.
"This isn't some newfangled project that came out of nowhere with a bunch of buzzwords and marketing hype," Cameron Winklevoss told the Wall Street Journal.
This year, DCG made Zcash one of its largest positions. In November, Grayscale informed regulators of plans to convert its Zcash trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), which dramatically spurred the token's rally. Zcash has risen by approximately 50% over the past month and 1,140% over the past year. Bitcoin, by comparison, has gained 8% in the past month and lost 24% in the past year.
However, Zcash's market capitalization is $8.9 billion—a tiny fraction compared to Bitcoin, and smaller cryptocurrencies historically tend to surge and then plummet, the publication notes.
Worrying Signal
For regulators, Zcash's additional privacy layer is a cause for concern. Authorities fear that terrorists and other criminals could use privacy coins to evade sanctions. Several countries have already banned or restricted their listing on licensed exchanges. Blockchain analysts, however, note that terrorist groups currently prefer Bitcoin and stablecoins because they are easier to trade, the WSJ writes.
Zcash also differs from Bitcoin in another way: the absence of a mysterious creator, which has largely contributed to the latter's mythical status. For example, Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn is a public figure: an American computer security expert and cryptographer, currently serving as Chief Product Officer at Shielded Labs. In December 2025, he also joined the Winklevoss brothers' Cypherpunk Technologies as a strategic advisor.