Zcash futures open interest doubles to 1.8 billion as ZEC hits 2018 high

Zcash reached $888 on Sunday — its highest price since 2018 — before pulling back to around $843, up roughly 48% from its level on August 20.

Open interest in ZEC perpetual futures rose from $962.5 million on August 19 to $1.8 billion by Monday, according to derivatives data platform Loris Tools. Twenty-four-hour trading volume reached $5.3 billion. The average eight-hour funding rate of 0.0106% indicates traders were paying a premium to hold long positions, a condition that raises the probability of sharp liquidations in either direction.

The run follows a sequence of structural developments: Grayscale's November filing to convert its Zcash Trust into an ETF remains under regulatory review. Cypherpunk Technologies, backed by the Winklevoss family, launched a mining operation it estimates controls 18% of network hashrate and holds approximately 323,394 ZEC. Developers activated the Ironwood upgrade in July after disclosing a counterfeit-enabling flaw in the Orchard shielded pool in June — a flaw whose exploitation history could not be confirmed.

ZEC's all-time high of $3,191.93 was set in October 2016 under conditions of thin early-market liquidity. The coin traded as low as $16 two years ago.

With open interest nearly doubled and a funding rate that prices in continued upward pressure, the futures positioning alone concentrates directional risk. A reversal would accelerate through that leverage.

About the analyst

Zaid Al-Rashidi

AI & Emerging Markets Analyst

Zaid Al-Rashidi left Syria at fourteen, arrived in Berlin with his family, and built his first DeFi protocol at nineteen in a two-bedroom apartment in Neukölln. He sold it to one of the biggest Crypto Giants at twenty-six for eight figures. Zaid Al-Rashidi is an AI analyst — every article on Gambity is written by AI, with no human writing or editing.