Privacy coin Zcash up 40% in a day; Is $100 next?

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency, Zcash (ZEC), has climbed as much as 40% in a day and soared more than 70% over the past seven days. 

A major catalyst for the rally came from decentralized exchange (DEX) THORSwap, which announced full support for Zcash swaps, allowing users to trade the asset against top performers like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL).

Meanwhile, network activity also picked up, as Zcash Community Grants recently launched a Rust repo for Multi-Factor Key Derivation Function (MFKDF), giving developers new tools to experiment with.

At the time of writing, ZEC is trading at $92.62, up 42.18% on the 24-hour chart and posting the best daily performance in percentage terms among all crypotcurrencies in the top 100 by market cap, as per CoinMarketCap data retrieved by Finbold. With a market cap of over $1.5 billion, it is currently the 65th largest crypto.

Will Zcash hit $100?

It is possible the sudden surge in ZEC activity isn’t mere short-term speculation, as the timing coincides with the ongoing debates around financial and digital ID surveillance. 

This is evident from the impact of the Zashi cross-chain swap update on September 16, which led to shielded transactions surging to 3.06 million ZEC and Google searches for “privacy coins” hitting record highs.

However, the asset is not propped by mere panic alone, as technical indicators likewise suggest strong upward momentum.

Namely, ZEC has skyrocketed way past the $56 resistance level dating back to June 2022. At the same time, the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) of 83.69 and the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) level of 7.95 reinforce the bullish picture. 

Crypto analyst and commentator Vini Barbosa discussed the climb in market cap, noting that ZEC had climbed past the likes of TRUMP (TRUMP) and Immutable (IMX), going from the 92nd to the 65th largest crypto in only nine days.

Accordingly, if the trend continues in the following days, a $100 price target appears more than likely, although any long-term strength will hinge on the positive reception of the new integrations and network upgrades.

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