Zcash Price Prediction: $500 In Sight as ZEC’s Bear Market Seems to Be Over

Zcash (ZEC) rose by 4% in the past 24 hours to $400 and is currently the top-performing cryptocurrency in the top 20 with a 66% gain in the past 30 days.

Trading volumes surged by 60% during this period, hitting $1 billion for the first time since December 2025, indicating strong buying pressure and an ongoing short squeeze.

Liquidations rose near $8 million yesterday as Zcash hit a session high of $424. This was the highest single-day squeeze for bears in a month, and could be the result of a significant volume of stop orders sitting on top of that key price level.

Moreover, trading volumes hit a key level last week at $4 billion. Data from Artemis indicates that volumes rose to these levels at the beginning of Zcash’s strong rally from October 2025 to November 2025.

This could be an early signal that the token is getting ready to explode once again, possibly eyeing a retest of the $500 area, followed by a move to $700 if that important ceiling is broken.

Open Interest (OI) in Zcash Futures Doubled in a Month

Zcash’s performance gap with well-established tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) could indicate strong interest in its privacy feature.

At a time when speculators’ interest in cryptocurrencies is still weak, these kinds of volumes and performance signal that something is going on under the hood as investors are lining up to accumulate ZEC at a frantic pace.

Open interest (OI) in ZEC has been rising to levels not seen since January this year. In April, Zcash’s OI closed the month 95% higher compared to where the metric stood at the end of March.

Although OI is still sitting a third below its all-time high, this is a remarkable divergence from how the demand for futures is behaving for other top altcoins like Solana (SOL) or XRP (XRP).

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East persist, and that could be prompting investors in the region to shield their transactions. Oil is once again trading above $100, indicating that the market has been losing confidence about President Trump’s ability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz any time soon.

Moreover, a big change in the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to happen this month, as Chairman Jerome Powell will be replaced by Kevin Warsh.

Shielded Transactions Hit 30% of the Total

Zcash’s shielded transactions allow users to mask their paper trail. This is achieved by accessing any of the blockchain’s shielded pools – e.g., Orchard. The percentage of shielded transactions recently spiked from 20% to 30%, indicating higher usage of this feature.

This is just 5% off the metric’s local peak of 35% from February 2026 and the second-highest reading in the last 6 months. That said, the number of tokens shielded has stood relatively unchanged in the past month at 5.2 million this year.

Looking at the weekly chart, Zcash closed last week with its fourth weekly gain of the past 5, while it also consummated a breakout of a descending price channel that had been forming since December 2025.

The $360 – $370 levels seem to have been a relevant supply zone in the past, and it has now been broken, increasing the odds of a sustained squeeze and a power move to $700 in the near term.

Meanwhile, the weekly Relative Strength Index (RSI) just sent a buy signal upon climbing above the 14-day moving average. Signals like these in high time frames (HFTs) tend to be quite reliable.

The $700 area seems like a plausible mid-term target for ZEC if demand persists above $400, as bears will keep getting squeezed if the price keeps rising. This token has to rise past $500 to keep rallying to that target, as this is a key resistance in the daily chart.

Zcash Breaks Past 200-Day EMA as Bear Market is Over

Heading down to this lower time frame, we can see that ZEC bounced off $300 recently, as we anticipated. In our latest Zcash price prediction from April 21, we actually laid out an attractive trading opportunity with an entry at $328.

That position has already yielded a 28% gain – not bad for just two weeks. This translates into a 1.85x return based on the parameters we set forth for that trade, which include a stop price at $283 and a maximum risk-reward ratio of 4.4x if ZEC hits $500.

This would be a good time to cash out some of those profits. However, we still expect that Zcash will keep rallying. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) recently hit overbought levels, and ZEC already pulled back after that.

Hence, this renewed wave of positive momentum should push Zcash to $500 before the next correction hits. The price action decisively broke above the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), which is also a strong sign that the trend has flipped from bearish to bullish.

It seems clear now that $200 was the cycle’s bottom, while $300 could have been the “FOMO” trigger. Higher volumes, increased interest from speculators in the futures market, and an ongoing short squeeze are favoring a bullish outlook and could push ZEC back to $700 over the next few weeks.

This Buy Signal Offers a 3X Return

Our signals system flashed a “buy” on May 1, indicating strong institutional participation in this latest bounce off $300. This is yet another sign that Zcash bulls are onto something.

This is the fourth consecutive buy signal in this higher time frame. Our signals system identifies a specific candle pattern accompanied by above-average trading volumes to spot whale-backed price movements.

We usually rely on the signals that happen after strong bounces off key levels (like $300) or resistance/support breakouts. Hence, this is a high-probability signal that indicates not just increased bullish momentum, but also organic buying interest supporting the move.

Heading down to the 4-hour chart, we got a buy signal as well. Although these lower time frame signals are less reliable, they are still important as they provide sniper-level entries for long and short positions.

This was the first buy after a series of five “sell” signals. A retest of the $400 level seems likely during today’s session. If that happens, late buyers could open a long position at that level, with a stop price set below $360 for a sufficient cushion. That swing trade offers a 3x risk-reward ratio.