Zcash Balances Privacy and Compliance as Price Surges 970%

Electric Coin Co. (ECC), the developer behind privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC), has unveiled its Q4 2025 roadmap amid a dramatic 970% surge in ZEC's price over the past year, according to Crypto News. The roadmap prioritizes enhancing privacy features, reducing technical debt, and improving usability for Zashi wallet users while securing development fund management, as reported by Coinotag.

The roadmap outlines four key initiatives: expanding sapling addresses for all ZEC swaps via the NEAR Intents protocol, generating new transparent addresses upon fund receipt, enabling Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) multisig support for Keystone hardware wallets, and refining Zashi wallet usability, according to Lookonchain. ECC emphasized its commitment to flexibility—saying it will "re-tune our approach" if market conditions or revenue shifts impact progress—as The Block reported.

Zcash's price rally has been fueled by growing adoption of its shielded transactions. The shielded supply now exceeds 4.5 million ZEC, with 30% of the total supply locked in privacy-protecting pools, per The CoinRise. This surge reflects renewed trust in Zcash's optional privacy model, which allows users to choose between transparent and shielded transactions—a feature noted in a Coinotag report that contrasted Zcash's approach with Monero's mandatory privacy. Analysts attribute the momentum to regulatory scrutiny of transparent blockchains and Zcash's recent Solana integration, which will enable light clients to verify Zcash transactions on the high-speed network, as that Coinotag piece also discussed.

Market dynamics further underscore Zcash's ascent. The token has outperformed Monero and Shiba Inu (SHIB), overtaking both in market cap to rank 21st globally at $6.22 billion, according to U.Today. ZEC's 30-day price gain of 225.9% has drawn attention from figures like crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, who predicts a $10,000 price target, citing Zcash's controlled supply and institutional adoption via Grayscale's Zcash Trust, per Coin Edition. Meanwhile, on-chain metrics show a 150% quarter-over-quarter increase in Zcash activity, driven by speculative inflows tied to the ZK narrative, as earlier Coinotag coverage noted.

ECC's roadmap also addresses governance and security. The firm plans to use a P2SH multisig wallet to manage developer funds, a move aimed at preventing vulnerabilities and ensuring transparent allocation, according to a Coinotag bulletin. Recent updates, including a decentralized on-ramp for shielded ZEC and a temporary Coinbase on-ramp suspension over privacy concerns, highlight ECC's prioritization of user privacy (reported earlier by Crypto News). These efforts align with broader trends in the crypto space, where privacy coins are increasingly seen as tools for balancing confidentiality with regulatory compliance, as The Block analysis observed.

As Zcash navigates its Q4 roadmap, the focus remains on solidifying its position as a leader in privacy-preserving blockchain technology. With technical upgrades, strategic integrations, and a bullish market outlook, Zcash appears poised to capitalize on the growing demand for encrypted financial solutions in an evolving regulatory landscape.