Grayscale Bets $1 Million on Zcash as Privacy Coin Tumbles

In brief

• Grayscale plans to direct $1 million to Zcash ecosystem groups, awarding the first $400,000 in equal grants to four organizations, including the Zcash Foundation.
• The firm launched Zcash Invest and a national ad campaign, funded by reinvesting up to a year of sponsor fees from its Zcash ETF.
• ZEC fell 11.3% to about $1,043, down roughly 19% over 30 days but still up about 75% from a year ago.

Grayscale is putting money and marketing muscle behind Zcash, even as the privacy coin’s price retreats.

The asset manager said Tuesday that it plans to direct $1 million to nonprofits and initiatives that support the Zcash ecosystem. It has already awarded $100,000 each to four groups: the Zcash Foundation, policy group Pretty Good Policy for Zcash, Swiss-based Shielded Labs and Project Tachyon, a scaling effort led by one of Zcash’s co-founders.

The funding comes from fees on The Zcash ETF, which trades under the ticker ZCSH. Grayscale said it intends to reinvest all of the sponsor fees it collects from the fund, for up to its first year as an exchange-traded product, into developing and marketing the network and educating people about it.

The commitment is voluntary, and Grayscale can change or end it at any time.