Fed Hikes, Privacy Pumps: Zcash Outruns Bitcoin's Boring Half-Percent 🛡️

Privacy-focused token Zcash jumped 23% to about $1,369 over the past 24 hours, outperforming bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies as digital assets rebounded alongside global stock futures following the Federal Reserve's first interest-rate increase since 2023. Bitcoin edged up less than 1% to roughly $76,258, while Solana gained nearly 3% to just below $100. BNB and HYPE, the token of crypto trading platform Hyperliquid, added more than 2%, and ether, XRP and dogecoin rose between 1% and 2%.

ZEC's surge coincided with comments from Matt Huang, co-founder of investment firm Paradigm, who disclosed that the firm owns ZEC and described the token as "a private complement to Bitcoin." In an X post, Huang discussed Zcash's role alongside bitcoin and supported continued funding for its developers, while arguing that votes by coin holders should be combined with other ways of deciding changes to the network. Zcash lets users send money without publicly revealing who paid whom or how much, and its holders recently backed proposals to make payments faster while keeping scheduled cuts to the creation of new coins, a feature it shares with bitcoin.

The broader crypto rebound followed the Fed's quarter-point increase to its benchmark rate, setting the range at 3.75% to 4%. Higher rates make borrowing more expensive and can reduce money available for speculative investments, while also increasing the appeal of interest-paying cash and government debt relative to bitcoin, which pays no income simply for holding it. An expected increase can still be followed by rising crypto prices if investors become less concerned about how much further rates will climb.

The Fed's median projection put the policy rate at 4.1% at the end of both 2026 and 2027, consistent with one further quarter-point increase this year. The rate path signaled limited further tightening, helping risk assets recover into Asian morning hours Thursday.