Barry Silbert Says Zcash Feels Like Bitcoin Circa 2013
Zcash has surged more than 1,100% over the last year as Barry Silbert and other major crypto names backed the privacy-focused bitcoin fork. Silbert, the former crypto billionaire and founder of Grayscale Investments, said Zcash feels like bitcoin circa 2013.
The token was changing hands for around $75 in October last year and has more than doubled over the last three months. Supporters have pointed to its shielded transactions, zero-knowledge cryptography, fixed 21 million supply and proof-of-work consensus as the traits that separate it from bitcoin.
Silbert and Multicoin
Barry Silbert told the that Zcash “[Zcash] feels like bitcoin circa 2013,” placing the asset inside a broader bet on privacy as a core feature rather than an add-on. Tushar Jain said Multicoin Capital has bought a significant position in Zcash to express that thesis.
Multicoin disclosed earlier this month that it had built a significant position in the asset. Jain’s comments tied the purchase directly to the view that demand for private, self-sovereign transactions is rising.
Cypherpunk Technologies
The Winklevoss twins were backing a crypto treasury company called Cypherpunk Technologies that would buy and hold Zcash, and the company is now holding more than 300,000 Zcash coins worth around $150 million. Naval Ravikant also cast the token in insurance terms late last year, posting on X that “Bitcoin is insurance against fiat. Zcash is insurance against bitcoin.”
That cluster of support gives Zcash a different profile from a typical token rally. It is being accumulated by investors who are explicitly describing it as a hedge, a treasury asset and a privacy tool at the same time.
Zcash and Zero-Knowledge
Zcash was co-created in 2016 by Edward Snowden and is designed to enable private, shielded transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography. Jake Kennis said “Privacy is increasingly viewed as a necessity rather than a feature, renewing ideological demand for private, self-sovereign transactions,” and added that Zcash’s technical design and tokenomics position it as an “encrypted bitcoin.”
The upcoming halving will reduce new issuance, and that leaves the market focused on whether the rally can continue without the same pace of new buying. For investors tracking the move, the practical question is less about the label and more about whether this mix of fixed supply, privacy tooling and high-profile backing keeps pulling new capital into Zcash.
