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One of the most surprising stories of this cycle on the cryptocurrency market, Zcash (ZEC) now sits just $6.6 billion in market cap below the Cardano (ADA) token, which currently occupies the coveted top 10 spot.
In its tremendous march toward the crypto market elite, ZEC — once written off as a "dino coin" — has already surpassed the likes of Shiba Inu (SHIB), Arbitrum (ARB), Stellar (XLM) and many other prominent digital assets, doing it under a revived privacy narrative.
No matter what drives the Zcash price, the effect is evident on the leaderboard. Since the narrative started forming in October, thanks partly to Naval Ravikant’s endorsement, the price of ZEC has soared by roughly 1,000% — from as low as $70 to above $700 per coin.
Now the next targets for "enhanced Bitcoin," as many call Zcash, are Hyperliquid’s native coin HYPE and ADA, which fuels the Cardano blockchain.
Zcash (ZEC) vs. Cardano (ADA): $6 billion at stake
With a market cap of $10.1 billion, ZEC needs just a 65% price increase to hit the “sweet” top 10. For an asset that has already delivered a tenfold price increase in a couple of months, this does not seem unbelievable, but the crypto market is definitely not a place where anything can be projected with certainty.
Interestingly, in terms of daily volume, ZEC — with $1.71 billion — is already in 11th place, right above ADA but still below Dogecoin (DOGE).
More optimistic projections point to Zcash eventually overtaking XRP, but for that to happen, ZEC would need to multiply its price by another thousand percent. For now, the focus is on the Cardano-Zcash market-cap battle.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team