Zcash clears $10B market cap, leapfrogs Hyperliquid to re-enter crypto’s top 20

Zcash just crossed the $10 billion market cap threshold and moved past Hyperliquid, reclaiming a top-20 slot as momentum continues to build. The headline is the number, but the engine is signaling: when an influential allocator publicly elevates a coin, liquidity and narrative can compound faster than fundamentals can catch up.

Arthur Hayes said ZEC is now the second-largest liquid asset in Maelstrom’s portfolio after bitcoin, and that it has gained 750% since October. That single disclosure changes the game because it reframes ZEC from “legacy privacy coin” to “active, high-conviction trade” for a sophisticated desk. In crypto, that kind of endorsement often catalyzes a reflexive loop: better liquidity begets more participation, which tightens spreads and draws even more incremental capital.

Why this matters: - Liquidity flywheel: A top-20 market cap pulls market makers and basis traders off the sidelines. Depth improves, hedging costs drop, and larger tickets can clear without blowing out slippage. That’s how a rally sustains beyond an initial squeeze. - Narrative reset: ZEC has long lived under the shadow of compliance concerns, even as its tech stack around zero-knowledge proofs enables selective disclosure and auditability. A prominent allocator leaning in nudges the market to revisit first principles rather than legacy labels. - Market-structure tell: Surpassing Hyperliquid hints at rotation from exchange-native tokens toward assets with differentiated utility and asymmetric optionality. Whether that persists will hinge on how much spot demand replaces speculative perps flow.

The tension is obvious. Investors are attracted to the convexity of a scarce, privacy-preserving asset regaining scale. At the same time, institutions remain cautious given policy overhang. That creates a psychological setup where incremental clarity—on exchange support, custody, or analytics that respect privacy while enabling compliance—can unlock new pockets of capital without requiring maximal policy shifts.

What I’m watching next: - Does top-20 status translate into durable market depth across major venues, not just a headline print? - Are spreads and borrow rates stabilizing, signaling real two-sided flow rather than momentum-only interest? - Do on-chain patterns show broader adoption—more shielded-to-transparent interactions and responsible tooling—rather than pure speculation?

ZEC reclaiming a top-20 slot and topping $10 billion isn’t the destination; it’s the liquidity threshold where professional capital decides whether this is a trade or the start of a multi-quarter allocation theme. The Maelstrom signal makes that decision path harder to ignore.