Raoul Pal: Zcash price surge may be capital rotation, not a new trend

Pal discussed Zcash on the When Shift Happens podcast. He said he is not trying to be the first buyer in every trade. When a coin has already posted a big move, he tends to slow down and watch what happens next. From that angle, Zcash may be less of a long, structural breakout and more of a temporary magnet for trading capital.

The market, however, is reacting to the numbers. According to CoinGecko data, ZEC is up roughly 695% over the past year. That kind of performance tends to pull in short-term flows. It also raises the risk that some buyers are simply chasing momentum.

Zcash has also picked up a few corporate headlines in recent weeks. Biotech firm Leap Therapeutics said it will rebrand as Cypherpunk Technologies and adopt a Zcash-focused treasury strategy. The company said the financing was led by Winklevoss Capital. After the raise, Cypherpunk reported buying more than 200,000 ZEC, roughly $50 million worth, and described plans to build out its treasury approach around the asset.

Another signal came from the public markets. Nasdaq-listed Reliance Global Group said it reviewed its holdings and concentrated its Digital Asset Treasury entirely in Zcash, selling other crypto assets. The company later reported an additional increase in its position.

All of this has pushed Zcash back into the conversation. Pal’s core question is simpler: will demand hold when the market moves on to the next “dark horse”? For now, he does not see enough evidence that Zcash has locked in a sustained trend. It may be another round of reshuffling inside crypto, where attention and liquidity can swing faster than fundamentals can catch up.