Grayscale Launches Zcash ETF Following Critical Privacy Flaw That Rocked the Cryptocurrency

In brief

• Grayscale’s Zcash fund began trading Tuesday on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH.
• The product began as a private placement in October 2017.
• Its listing follows the disclosure and patching of a critical vulnerability in Zcash’s shielded transaction system.

Grayscale’s Zcash Exchange Traded Fund, better known as an ETF, began trading Tuesday on NYSE Arca, listing a nine-year-old investment product months after developers disclosed and patched a critical vulnerability in the privacy coin’s shielded transaction system.

Trading under the ticker ZCSH, the world’s first exchange-traded product offering spot Zcash exposure allows investors to track the price of ZEC through brokerage accounts without having to buy or store the token themselves.

“Grayscale has a long history of identifying emerging technologies and investment themes early, and our nine-year history operating this fund is the clearest signal of demand,” Grayscale Head of Index Steve Vanourny told Decrypt.

ZCSH began as the Grayscale Zcash Trust in October 2017. Grayscale filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November to convert the trust into an exchange-traded fund. As an exchange-traded product, shareholders do not own ZEC directly but instead own shares intended to track the value of the fund’s ZEC holdings.