Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain said this week that the firm’s recent investment in Zcash was driven by a convergence of stronger market traction, improving infrastructure and a broader return to crypto’s privacy roots. Speaking on a podcast, Jain argued that Zcash has moved from a 'left for dead' asset into a credible private store-of-value contender. At press time, ZEC traded at $584.82.
Why Multicoin changed its mind
Jain said Multicoin had watched Zcash for years without being convinced. Weak attention, poor usability, and limited evidence that privacy demand could translate into durable market interest kept the firm on the sidelines. But after Zcash rallied sharply and corrected, it retained community intensity and a higher market baseline than in prior years. Jain interpreted the correction not as a failed narrative but as a stress test — and said Zcash retained 'key people' supporting it.
The core thesis now, Jain explained, is that Zcash’s real market is the store-of-value sector, not a high-throughput payments network. He compared Zcash’s potential to Bitcoin’s early reflexivity: more people treating it as a store of value makes it a stronger candidate for that role.
Privacy as crypto’s forgotten piece
Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz, also on the podcast, argued that privacy had become 'the major thing that crypto has forgotten,' especially as institutional adoption pushes financial activity onto transparent rails. He contrasted Monero’s ring-signature design — which relies on decoys — with Zcash’s shielded model, calling the latter a stronger cryptographic foundation.
Jain positioned Zcash as 'privacy for the normal person,' not for illicit use, drawing a distinction from Monero’s darker market associations. That framing, he suggested, makes Zcash more palatable for mainstream adoption.
What’s ahead for Zcash
Jain acknowledged that Zcash had previously been 'hugely inflationary,' difficult to use, weakly marketed, and dependent on centralized exchanges for acquisition. But he and Mumtaz pointed to a set of upcoming catalysts. Ledger support for shielded ZEC is on the way. The shielded pool share sits at roughly 31% to 32%. Planned block-time reductions — from 75 seconds to 25 seconds — and further work on quantum resistance could tighten the technical story.
For now, the bet is that privacy demand finally has infrastructure to match it — and that Zcash, not Monero, is the vehicle that will carry it.
