Zcash Hits New Record High, Outpacing Bitcoin Amid Crypto Rally After Fed's First Rate Hike In 3 Years

ZCash (ZEC) hit a record high on Thursday, leading gains among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) during a broader crypto rally following the Federal Reserve’s first rate hike since 2023.

ZEC price rallied more than 13% in the last 24 hours, trading at around $1,350 at the time of writing, paring gains after crossing an all-time high of nearly $1,400.

Zcash was the top trending cryptocurrency on Stocktwits, with retail sentiment flipping to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ over the past day and chatter rising to ‘normal’ from ‘low’ levels.

Zcash Gains Momentum From Ironwood, Ledger Support

The privacy token extended its rally after Zcash Labs announced a $80,000 funding agreement with Ledger to support integration of Zcash’s new Ironwood shielded pool into Ledger devices.

The agreement is designed to allow ZEC holders to self-custody funds in the Ironwood pool using Ledger hardware wallets.

Zcash’s latest rally also follows the outcome of a governance vote that backed faster transactions while preserving the network’s Bitcoin-style halving schedule. Nearly 2.4 million ZEC participated in the vote, with 99.9% supporting a reduction in block times to 25 seconds from 75 seconds. Another 98.9% backed keeping Bitcoin-style halvings, which reduce new ZEC issuance at predetermined intervals.