Zcash tops $1,000 as ETF inflows ramp up and miners pile in

Zcash's native ZEC token jumped above $1,000 for the first time, excluding a highly volatile couple of days after getting listed on exchanges in late 2016, as inflows into Grayscale's recently launched exchange-traded fund ramped up and new computing power poured into the network.

ZEC traded as high as $1,023 on Friday, extending its monthly gains to around 94% and pushing its market cap toward $17 billion. The privacy-focused crypto was trading around $200 in March.

The rally follows Grayscale's Aug. 25 launch of the Zcash ETF, which trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker (ZCSH). The fund, which was converted from the company's Zcash Trust, is the first U.S. ETF to offer direct exposure to ZEC (ZEC).

ZCSH has recorded approximately $34.4 million in net inflows since its debut, according to Grayscale data. That figure is likely a bit lower than the true total, as it appears that data for Sept. 3 and 4 is incomplete. The fund's strongest day so far came on Sept. 2, when it attracted $12.6 million.

Miners pile in

The growing interest in Zcash has also spread to its mining network. Zcash's computing power, known as solrate, climbed from around 25 GSol/s in late August to briefly exceed 30 GSol/s, according to ZcashInfo.

But this additional competition has squeezed overall miner profitability.

A Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro, the current top-of-the-line ZEC mining machine, currently generates an estimated $708 in gross revenue per MWh of electricity, according to an analysis from TheEnergyMag. The research claims that this is about 3% below the $727 per MWh generated on Aug. 24, when ZEC was trading under $900.