Zcash ( ZEC ) has seen a rapid rise recently, with its price once breaking through $1250, and its market value reaching approximately $19.48 billion, placing it among the top ten in terms of crypto asset market value. According to foreign media, in response to this upward trend, F2Pool co-founder Shen Yu ( Chun Wang ) publicly stated that ZEC is more likely to be driven by market narrative rather than supported by improved fundamentals.
The upward trend is driven by multiple factors.
The report mentioned that ZEC has seen a cumulative increase of over 2200% in the past year, with a gain of 125% in the last 30 days as well. The factors driving the price up include Grayscale launching US spot Zcash ETF, a tightening of supply in circulation, and short covering.
However, Shen Yu believes that these factors can explain why prices have risen, but they are not sufficient to prove that there has been a corresponding increase in the network usage, user demand, or fundamental aspects of Zcash. He also pointed out that just because the market value is close to that of networks such as Solana and Hyperliquid, it does not mean that Zcash already has a similar scale of practical application.
The early allocation mechanism is once again under question
Shen Yu's doubts are not just about the price level itself. His core argument is that the market value ranking of ZEC has increased significantly faster than the changes in its online strength and usage.
He mentioned that Zcash adopted a “founder reward” mechanism in its early stages. In the first four years after the project went live, 20% of each block reward was set aside and allocated to founders, employees, consultants, and early investors. According to reported data, this portion amounts to approximately 2.1 million ZEC, which is equivalent to 10% of the total maximum supply of 21 million coins.
After the end of this mechanism, a similar proportion of funds continued to be provided in the form of development funds. Shenyu believes that this period of history makes it very difficult to directly compare Zcash with Bitcoin's mining reward model.
Governance and security issues are being re-discussed.
In addition to token distribution, Shenyu also mentioned the governance and privacy security controversies surrounding Zcash. Reports indicate that there were previously disagreements between Electric Coin Company and Zcash Foundation within the project, and in January 2026, the ECC team completely left.
He also mentioned a vulnerability in the Orchard shielding pool. This issue was disclosed in May 2026 and is said to have existed for about four years. Developers stated that no evidence of forging ZEC was found, and subsequent Ironwood upgrades also disabled the old fund pool.
In the view of Shenyu, when the valuation of Zcash has risen to a level close to that of some mainstream networks, these historical allocations, governance frictions, and security incidents will all become grounds for the market to re-examine whether its pricing is reasonable.
