Zcash rises against the market: ZEC recovers 12 percent from its low ahead of the vote

Zcash is rising against a weak crypto market on Sunday because short positions are being unwound and because on Monday, November 16, ZEC holders begin voting on the blockchain's development funding. According to CoinGecko, Zcash (ZEC) traded at $900.17 at 5:47 pm CET on November 15, up 5.1 percent in 24 hours. At the same time Bitcoin was down 0.7 percent, and Ether was flat.

The rise follows a long losing streak. On Binance, ZEC closed lower than the previous day eight times in a row from November 7 to November 14, and on Saturday the price fell as low as $801.52. By Sunday afternoon Zcash had recovered about 12 percent from that low. Whether this becomes a turnaround depends on two things this article puts into context: the vote on the treasury of Zcash Community Grants and the levels where leveraged positions are clustered.

Zcash price on Sunday: up 5 percent after eight losing days

The day's figures at a glance, according to CoinGecko as of 5:47 pm CET: the intraday low was $804.86 and the high $927.37. Despite Sunday's gain, ZEC is still down 29.7 percent over seven days. With a market capitalisation of $15.34 billion, Zcash ranks 11th among cryptocurrencies. It remains 71.8 percent below its all-time high of $3,191.93.

Binance daily candles show how steep the decline was. On November 6, ZEC still traded as high as $1,388 and closed at $1,323.01. After that it fell day after day: $1,261.51 on November 7, $1,044.95 on November 10 and $863.91 on November 14. In total the price lost a good 42 percent from the high to Saturday's low. Today's rise to almost $900 recovers only a small part of that.

Yesterday we reported on the third straight day of outflows from the Grayscale fund ZCSH, when ZEC fell below $900. Since then the picture has turned: the $900 mark, broken at the time, was reached again on Sunday, and Saturday's low is about $100 below the current price. New fund data for the weekend are not yet available, because US exchanges do not trade on Saturdays and Sundays.

Short liquidations in ZEC: what carried the morning rally

The first push came in the morning. According to a TokenPost report, ZEC rose 3.41 percent within an hour to $921 at around 10:12 am CET on Sunday, as short positions worth about $920,000 were forcibly closed. A liquidation is the automatic closing of a leveraged position by the exchange once the posted collateral is no longer sufficient. For shorts this means the exchange buys ZEC back, and those purchases push the price up further.

A short squeeze of this kind explains why a coin can suddenly gain significantly after a long losing streak, even though nothing has changed in its fundamentals. After eight red days, many traders had bet on further declines. When the price rose only slightly, the first shorts came under pressure. Hourly closes on Binance show the course: $896.85 at 6 am CET, $921.15 at 1 pm CET, then a pullback to $889.84 and, late in the afternoon, almost $899 again.

A rise driven by liquidations usually lasts only as long as new buyers keep coming. For the question of whether ZEC stays above $900, Monday's date therefore matters more than Sunday morning's squeeze.

Coinholder vote from November 16: the timeline in the Zcash forum

Five organisations jointly run the voting infrastructure for ZEC holders: Project Tachyon, Shielded Labs, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation and ZODL. On November 5 they published the timeline in the Zcash forum. Proposals could be submitted until November 8, the polls for ZEC holders and community panels open on November 16 and close on Monday, November 30, at 23:59 UTC. In Central European Time, the vote therefore ends at 0:59 am on December 1.

The organisers write that they deliberately shortened the timeline because tensions in the community are high. If the polls find rough consensus, developers and miners intend to implement the result with the NU 7.1 network upgrade. The result itself is therefore a poll and not yet a change to the protocol. Who is eligible to vote and how voting worked in earlier rounds is explained in our guide to the Zcash vote of November 12.

ZCG treasury in figures: 94,349 ZEC and $8.75 million in cash

Zcash Community Grants, or ZCG, is an independent committee that awards grants to developers, wallet teams and other projects in the ecosystem. The vote revolves around its treasury. A breakdown that a forum member posted in the same thread on November 14 gives the holdings according to the dashboard as of November 12: 94,349.71 ZEC and $8.75 million in cash. Grants approved but not yet paid out add up to $2.25 million, leaving $6.50 million in cash free. According to the author, the dashboard is flagged as needing an update.

The breakdown also calculates what would remain without and with the disputed withdrawal of 50,000 ZEC. At the then price of $903.80, after commitments it would be $91.77 million without the withdrawal and $46.58 million after it. At a halved price of $451.90, the figures would be $49.13 million and $26.54 million. According to the breakdown, the withdrawal corresponds to about 53 percent of the reported ZEC holdings. The author stresses that these are comparisons, not forecasts.

For ZEC holders this contains a simple calculation: 50,000 ZEC are worth about $45 million at Sunday's price. If that amount disappears from circulation, supply falls. How much this affects the price cannot be quantified, especially as the coins already sit in a treasury today and are not freely traded.

Dev Fund and Network Sustainability Mechanism: the four options for the ZCG treasury

The Dev Fund is the part of the block reward that does not go to miners but finances development. ZCG receives a stream of 8 percent of every block reward from it, and a second stream of 12 percent goes to a pot that holders decide on themselves. The forum breakdown summarises the four options for the ZCG treasury as follows:

• Status quo: the treasury and the 8 percent stream remain until the third halving of the block reward, and new grants continue under the existing rules.
• ZAP: like the status quo, but with an additional review procedure for new grants.
• Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund: 50,000 ZEC go to the Network Sustainability Mechanism, and after activation the 8 percent stream flows into a new lockbox. ZCG continues to award grants from the rest of the treasury.
• Dissolution: new grants end with activation, existing commitments and wind-down costs are set aside, and the rest goes to the future administrator of the lockbox.

The Network Sustainability Mechanism, or NSM, is a mechanism through which ZEC are taken out of circulation. A lockbox is a pot locked on the blockchain from which money flows only once a defined procedure exists for it. All four options leave the holders' 12 percent stream unchanged. Under the organisers' rules, voters may approve several proposals as long as they find each of those outcomes acceptable.

Block time from 25 to 20 seconds: the dispute over NU 7.1

Besides the funding, a technical question is on the table. The NU7 upgrade cut the interval between two blocks from 75 to 25 seconds. On November 8, a forum participant named ValarDragon argued for including a further reduction to 20 seconds in the poll. His reasoning: the change is technically ready and would give all users faster confirmations.

There is clear opposition to the pace. Daira-Emma Hopwood, editor of the Zcash Improvement Proposals (ZIPs), wrote on November 14 that the step from 75 to 25 seconds had been risky and that NU7 would have needed a few more weeks of preparation. Another forum participant pointed out that a necessary adjustment to the funding streams in NU7 had been noticed only late. The dispute shows that NU 7.1 decides not only about money but also about how fast Zcash wants to change its protocol.

For holders this means that even a clear result at the end of November only sets a process in motion. Weeks pass before an upgrade is activated, and no date for NU 7.1 has been set yet.

Buying ZEC in Europe: MiCA exchange or your own wallet

If you want to buy ZEC, the easiest route in the EU is an exchange licensed under the European crypto regulation MiCA. MiCA is the EU rulebook that subjects crypto service providers to a licensing requirement and supervision. Not every exchange lists Zcash, because as a privacy coin with shielded transactions ZEC is offered by some providers only in restricted form or not at all. Which platforms trade ZEC and at what fees is shown in our comparison of the best crypto exchanges.

For the vote, where you keep your coins is decisive. Coins on an exchange legally belong to you, but the exchange holds the keys, and only those who self-custody can tie their vote to their holdings. The organisers state in the forum which wallets are supported and which snapshot date applies to holdings. Check this before you move coins, because every transfer costs fees and can miss a cut-off date.

Staking does not exist for Zcash, because the blockchain uses proof of work and new coins are created through mining.

Leverage on Zcash: long liquidations around $860

If you trade ZEC with leverage, you should know the liquidation levels. The specialist portal U.Today reported a cluster of leveraged long positions around $860 on Saturday. If the price falls back there, these positions would be forcibly sold, which can accelerate the decline. Sunday showed that the same mechanism also works to the upside.

A worked example shows the risk: with 10x leverage, a price decline of about 10 percent is enough to wipe out the entire collateral of a long position. On Sunday alone, ZEC moved between $804.86 and $927.37, a range of a good 15 percent. With high leverage, this single daily move would already have been enough to liquidate positions in both directions. Leveraged products such as futures and CFDs carry a high risk of loss for retail investors.

ZEC levels up and down: $930, $1,000 and $801

On the upside, the intraday high is the first hurdle: on Binance it stood at $930.49 on Sunday. Above that comes the round $1,000 mark, which ZEC broke to the downside on November 10. That day's close of $1,044.95 marks the next zone, where sellers dominated in the previous week.

On the downside, the first support is at $860, where according to U.Today long positions are clustered. Below that is Saturday's low of $801.52. If ZEC falls below this level, the weekend recovery is void. You will find more on the long-term scenarios on our Zcash price prediction page.

The situation remains two-sided. In favour of a further recovery is that the market could read the vote as the end of the funding dispute and that many shorts have already been forced out of the market. Against it are the loss of almost 30 percent over the week, the outflows from the Grayscale fund in the preceding days and an overall market that has not yet found a clear direction after Saturday's slump.

Zcash before the vote: until November 30 your own wallet counts

1. Sort out custody: If you want to vote, you need ZEC in your own supported wallet. Suitable devices for long-term storage are shown in the hardware wallet comparison.
2. Choose how to buy: Buy ZEC only on an exchange with a MiCA licence that lists Zcash and allows withdrawals to your own wallet. Compare fees and offerings among the best crypto exchanges.
3. Record your purchase date: Note the date and price of every purchase. A portfolio tracker from our comparison of crypto tax tools documents date and cost basis automatically.

(As of November 15, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)