Grayscale is moving to list the first U.S. exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking Zcash $ZEC$506.28, a once-niche privacy coin that has surged into the crypto mainstream in 2025.

The firm filed an S-3 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday morning, seeking to convert its existing Zcash Trust into a spot ETF. The move mirrors Grayscale’s strategy with other products like its Bitcoin Trust, which was the first to be converted into an ETF in 2024.

If approved, the fund would be the first Zcash ETF in the U.S. and a signal that investors are paying closer attention to privacy-preserving crypto assets, particularly in a year when broader markets have struggled.

Zcash has climbed more than 1,000% year-to-date and is up 40% in the last month alone, outperforming both bitcoin BTC$87,830.49and ether ETH$2,939.64. Once viewed as an experimental privacy tool, Zcash has steadily evolved into what some see as functional digital cash.

In 2025, shielded adoption — Zcash’s version of encrypted transactions — spiked. Roughly 30% of $ZECtransactions now involve the shielded pool, and between 20% and 25% of the total supply is held in encrypted addresses. That growth helped Zcash surpass Monero in market capitalization, becoming the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency.

With the ETF filing, Grayscale is betting that investors want exposure to this kind of digital privacy infrastructure — and are ready to back a coin that has, for now, outpaced the majors.