Recently, many people have been focusing on new concepts like Mind Network and FHE, but they haven't noticed an old rival quietly making a comeback—ZEC (Zcash).

In November this year, the price of this coin even broke through the $700 mark. Although it has now fallen back to around $500, this upward trend is enough to outshine many AI tokens. Interestingly, amid the regulatory crackdown causing major exchanges to delist privacy coins, ZEC is still thriving. What is really behind this?

**The Underrated "Bitcoin in Disguise"**

If Monero is considered a completely black-market tool (by default fully anonymous), ZEC is like a "well-behaved gentleman"—able to protect privacy while willing to operate within the rules.

In terms of lineage, ZEC is directly forked from Bitcoin's code, with a fixed supply of 21 million coins, and the halving schedule is exactly the same, occurring every four years. The last halving happened at the end of 2024. This design continuity naturally resonates with Bitcoin users.

**The True Pioneer of Zero-Knowledge Proof Technology**

ZEC's real killer feature is zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge). While many Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum boast about how advanced ZK technology is, few mention that Zcash has been commercializing this technology since 2016, making it one of the earliest practical applications of zero-knowledge proofs.

This isn't just encryption hiding; it allows the network to verify the legitimacy of transactions without revealing transaction details. In balancing privacy protection and on-chain verifiability, ZEC has found a unique path.