The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for over ten weeks. The US Treasury has frozen $344 million in Iranian crypto wallets. Financial surveillance has become a weapon of war.
And the cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) is up over 100% in 30 days. These facts are connected.
While price reporting and predictions are not a focus of this newsletter, they do send an important signal of crypto trends. And one of the hottest crypto trends at the moment is the privacy narrative.
ZEC is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016. Like Bitcoin, it has a fixed supply of 21 million coins and runs on a public blockchain. The key difference is privacy. Zcash uses advanced cryptography called zk-SNARKs to allow fully shielded transactions — where the sender, receiver and amount are all hidden, while the transaction itself is still verifiable on the blockchain.
The credit card that boosted ZEC demand
On January 29, 2026, the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini launched the Zcash Edition of its credit card — offering up to 4% cashback paid out in ZEC. Every swipe for gas, groceries or dinner automatically purchases ZEC on the cardholder’s behalf. Trading volume on Gemini jumped 45% post-launch. ZEC climbed into the top 10 reward choices out of more than 50 assets on the platform.
As Tyler Winklevoss, a large proponent and investor of Zcash, put it:“Privacy is normal and a precondition to your freedom and self-sovereignty.”
Then Came Hormuz
When the US began freezing Iranian crypto wallets and deploying blockchain analytics to trace sanctions evasion — the privacy coin narrative shifted from theoretical to urgent.
At Consensus Miami, Multicoin Capital disclosed a significant ZEC position. Co-founder Tushar Jain said: “Private stores of value like ZCash will become more and more important as financial activity moves on-chain.”
Privacy Doesn’t Mean Criminal
This point matters. Zcash is not a tool for evading sanctions. It is a tool for ordinary people who believe their financial data belongs to them — not to governments, corporations or bad actors.
Zcash supports optional View Keys — allowing auditing while maintaining privacy. Gemini’s support for shielded withdrawals demonstrates that genuine privacy can coexist with regulatory compliance.
The person paying for groceries with their Gemini ZEC card is not a criminal. They are someone who understands that financial privacy — like personal privacy — is a right, not a privilege.
ZEC now ranks as the #12 cryptocurrency by market cap – with about a $10 billion market cap and $900 million in 24-hour trading volume.
The Bottom Line
A credit card made ZEC accessible. A war made it feel necessary.
That is a powerful combination.