Zcash Price News: Arkham Reveals Top ZEC Holders – Privacy Crisis?

Zcash (ZEC) has gone up by 9% in the past 24 hours to $440 and has accumulated a 16% gain in the past 7 days despite the fact that Arkham Intelligence just uncovered thousands of supposedly anonymous transactions made through its blockchain.

In an X post published yesterday, the crypto analytics firm claimed to have revealed the trace of $420 billion worth of ZEC’s trading volumes, the addresses from which the transactions originated, and where they ended up.

Arkham confirmed that:

• 53% of all Zcash transactions are labeled.
• $420B of volume attributed to an entity.
• 48% of all inputs and outputs are attributed to an entity.
• 37% of all balances are labeled ($2.5B).

This could be a significant development for a blockchain that should supposedly offer zero-knowledge (ZK) transactions.

Apart from top wallets from exchanges, the U.S. government reportedly holds a significant amount of Zcash, coming from a seizure proceeding related to the AlphaBay case.

Top Entities Holding Zcash – Source: Arkham Intelligence

In addition, a handful of wallets reportedly hold a similar total of $45 million worth of the token each, while the largest non-identified holder currently owns $100 million worth of ZEC or 1.4% of the token’s circulating market cap.

ZEC has been one of the top-performing assets of this year with eye-popping gains of 640%. Privacy tokens unexpectedly started to gain popularity after prominent members of the crypto community emphasized the token’s potential to attract millions parked in offshore accounts.

However, these latest findings from Arkham could negatively impact the project’s credibility if it turns out that Zcash transactions are not as anonymous as users once thought.

RSI Sends Buy Signal as Zcash Bounces Off $300

Despite the news, the ZEC chart is quite bullish as the token bounced almost perfectly off the $300 area.

ZEC/USD Daily Chart (Coinbase) – Source: TradingView

This level is also a major structural point for the uptrend, as it was Zcash’s previous higher high before its climb to $700. Hence, we can say that the price is still on an uptrend despite the latest big drop.

Today, ZEC is also climbing above the 200-day exponential moving average, favoring a bullish long-term outlook for the token. If the rally continues, we could expect a retest of the $700 area shortly, meaning a 57% upside potential.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has confirmed a buy signal as it climbed above the 14-day moving average. This momentum oscillator also moved past the mid-line, confirming that the uptrend is accelerating.

Market Conditions Are Improving For Cryptos

Most other altcoins, apart from Zcash, are bouncing off key levels this week as market conditions have improved.

Fear and Greed Index – Source: CoinMarketCap

The Fear and Greed Index has moved from a record low of 11 to 25 at the time of writing. Although this still means that investors are cautious about the future, this could be an early sign that the worst of the sell-off is over.

The last time that the F&G Index hit similar lows, it marked the beginning of a strong leg up for the crypto market, and resulted in all-time highs for Bitcoin (BTC) and a handful of tokens just a few months after.

Tomorrow, the FOMC will convene to make a decision on interest rates, and analysts are expecting another 25 basis points drop.

After a brief hiccup led economists to believe that the Fed was no longer willing to lower rates a third time this year, this upcoming cut could reassure market participants for the rest of the month and help cryptos end the year on a positive note.