Zcash Founder Backs Shielded Bitcoin and Sticks With $5,000 Target
Ben-Sasson sees Shielded Bitcoin as a path to private payments on Bitcoin, while Zcash keeps moving toward its $5,000 target after strong inflows and short squeezes.
Key Takeaways
- Zcash founder Eli Ben-Sasson backs Shielded Bitcoin, a proposal for private transfers on Bitcoin's base layer.
- He says Zcash is still on track for a $5,000 price target by the end of the year.
- ZEC is trading around $1,545.89 after strong inflows into Zcash products and an earlier Ben-Sasson prediction that came true.
Zcash founder Eli Ben-Sasson has voiced support for Shielded Bitcoin, a proposal meant to bring private transfers to Bitcoin. At the same time, he says Zcash (ZEC) is still on track to hit his $5,000 (€4,400) target by the end of the year.
Privacy Comes to Bitcoin
Ben-Sasson, who is also a co-founder of StarkWare, previously helped write the Zerocash paper that came before Zcash. According to him, the original idea was always to bring that kind of privacy to Bitcoin. Shielded Bitcoin lines up with that directly, since it is supposed to make private payments possible on Bitcoin's base layer.
The proposal was published on September 24 by research firm Alloc Init. The authors describe a combination of encrypted notes, public nullifiers, and zero-knowledge proofs. That lets hidden coins avoid being spent twice. Notably, the design does not require a soft fork or a consensus change. It relies on Bitcoin PIPEs, a tool built on witness encryption, so the protocol data, according to the creators, stays entirely on Bitcoin itself.
That matters because regular Bitcoin payments remain visible on the chain and can reveal sensitive business information to outsiders. Ben-Sasson said he has not read the paper yet, but he did welcome the direction. That fits broader concerns about how transparent Bitcoin transactions are; researchers have already warned that Bitcoin transactions can reveal more metadata than many users think.
ZEC Rally Holds Up
His optimism about Zcash comes at a time when the token has surged sharply. On September 9, Ben-Sasson already predicted that ZEC would move above $1,200 (€1,060) by September 25. That call came true. ZEC is now trading around $1,545.89 (€1,360), up 1.44% in 24 hours and nearly 291% over 90 days. The token ranks ninth by market cap.
To reach $5,000 (€4,400), ZEC would still need to rise about 223%. Ben-Sasson says more whales are now asking him what is driving the rally, but he says he does not know the answer himself. He also asked his followers for their explanation.
Several catalysts came together in September. Zcash spot funds pulled in $98.2 million (€86.4 million) in the week through September 18, the biggest inflow among 14 crypto products. Ledger also added private Zcash balances to its desktop app. At the same time, short positions in ZEC got hit hard, including one that ended with a $10.68 million (€9.4 million) loss.
Why This Matters
For European crypto followers, this is especially interesting because privacy is becoming a bigger topic around Bitcoin again, while Zcash itself is showing that demand for privacy tokens can still be strong. The mix of a privacy proposal for Bitcoin, strong inflows into Zcash products, and support from a well-known founder makes this bigger than just one token. It may also show how quickly institutional and retail interest can feed into each other in this corner of the crypto market.
