Why Zcash Surged 24% This Past Week
- - Why Zcash Surged 24% This Past Week
Chris MacDonald, The Motley FoolFebruary 16, 2026 at 4:26 AM
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Key Points -
Privacy tokens are once again in the spotlight for investors looking for outsized gains in 2026.
Up more than 800% year-to-date (but down nearly 30% over the past month), Zcash's positive weekly move of 24% suggests upside momentum may be returning.
Here are a few of the underlying catalysts driving this robust weekly move.
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It's been a tale of differing timelines for investors in cryptocurrency giant Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC). Investors who put capital to work in this privacy-oriented network a year ago are up more than 800%. However, those who invested just one month ago are down nearly 30%.
Notably, that monthly move includes an incredible 24% weekly rally in Zcash (as of 5:15 p.m. ET), suggesting volatility is the name of the game for this digital asset and for privacy coins overall.
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I think that's a fair assessment, given the longer-term rally that's been underway for some time. Let's dive into whether this weekly rally can be sustained and what's behind the stark reversal in near-term investor sentiment this past week.
Investors appear to be back to thinking long-term
Privacy visual.
Source: Getty Images.
Zcash has been one of the more active privacy coins recently, thanks to a cluster of roadmap, funding, and infrastructure catalysts that strengthen its long‑term investment narrative rather than just short‑term price action.
The Zcash Foundation published its 2026 strategy at the end of January. This move aimed to reframe 2026 as a year of execution, with the network's developer team emphasizing routine consensus upgrades, stronger developer infrastructure, and better wallet UX to make ZEC behave more like practical digital cash and reduce friction for node operators and integrators.
At the end of the day, I think seamless transaction capabilities and the ability of digital assets to act like cash (in terms of privacy) are what continue to drive strong investor demand for Zcash. But with Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin recently donating to Shielded Labs, supporting Zcash's Crosslink upgrade to enhance privacy (and improve finality for transactions), there's a lot to like about this network's future upside via partnerships with other major blockchains and continued strong capital flows into privacy-focused networks.
If we do see the kind of capital continue to flow into the crypto sector that was flowing in 2024 and 2025, as many have expected, I do think Zcash could be an intriguing place to invest. Of course, this token's rally over the past year may prompt some profit-taking (and that's what I'd ascribe to much of the recent monthly price action). But with investors seemingly taking a longer-term perspective on Zcash and similar tokens, this could be worth adding to the watch list right now.
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Chris MacDonald has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Source: “AOL Money”
