Zcash Jumps 23% After Paradigm Discloses ZEC Stake

TL;DR

• Zcash surged 22% in 24 hours to trade near $1,369.

• Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed that his firm holds ZEC.

• Zcash holders recently supported faster payments while retaining scheduled issuance cuts.

• Bitcoin traded near $76,258 as most major cryptocurrencies recorded modest gains.

Zcash (ZEC) surged 23% over 24 hours to trade near $1,369 on Thursday, sharply outperforming Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.

The rally followed comments from Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who described Zcash as a privacy-focused complement to Bitcoin and disclosed that his investment firm holds ZEC.

The broader cryptocurrency market also recovered alongside global equities after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest-rate increase since 2023.

Paradigm Co-Founder Backs Zcash’s Privacy Role

Huang highlighted Zcash’s ability to provide transaction privacy that Bitcoin does not offer by default.

A few thoughts on ZCash (disclosure: Paradigm is an investor in ZEC and ZODL):

- All blockchain ecosystems struggle with long-term funding, especially of public goods, and an inflation-funded developer fund is an elegant mechanism to do so. How this fund is allocated is a fair…

— Matt Huang (@matthuang) September 16, 2026

Zcash allows users to make shielded transactions that conceal the sender, recipient, and transferred amount from the public blockchain. This feature has helped position the network as a privacy-focused alternative for cryptocurrency payments.

Huang said Paradigm owns ZEC and supported continued funding for the developers maintaining the protocol.

He also argued that token-holder voting should operate alongside other governance processes when determining changes to the network, rather than serving as the sole decision-making mechanism.

His comments coincided with the sharp increase in ZEC’s price, although they do not by themselves establish the cause of the rally.

The price increase follows community support for proposals intended to improve Zcash’s payment performance.

ZEC holders backed faster transactions while preserving the protocol’s scheduled reductions in new-token issuance. Like Bitcoin, Zcash periodically cuts the rate at which new coins enter circulation.

Maintaining this issuance structure preserves ZEC’s scarcity model, while technical improvements could make the network more practical for everyday payments.

Together, enhanced usability and continued supply reductions may have strengthened investor interest in Zcash.

Bitcoin and Solana Lead Wider Recovery

Bitcoin gained less than 1% to approximately $76,258 during Asian trading hours.

Solana advanced almost 3% to just below $100, while BNB and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token rose more than 2%. Ethereum, XRP and Dogecoin recorded gains between 1% and 2%.

Zcash’s 23% advance significantly exceeded the performance of these larger cryptocurrencies, making it one of the market’s strongest performers.

Fed Raises Rates to 3.75%–4%

The Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest-rate range by 25 basis points to between 3.75% and 4%.

Higher rates ordinarily create headwinds for cryptocurrencies by increasing borrowing costs and making yield-bearing cash and government debt more attractive. Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies do not produce income simply from being held.

However, the increase had been widely anticipated. Markets appeared more focused on the Fed’s projections, which suggested policymakers were not preparing for an aggressive series of additional hikes.

The median forecast placed the policy rate at 4.1% at the end of both 2026 and 2027, implying one further quarter-point increase this year.

Traditional markets also reacted positively following the Fed announcement. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.6%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.7%. Asian equities gained approximately 0.3%.

The two-year US Treasury yield fell two basis points to 4.71% after reaching its highest level since 2024 in the previous session.