Privacy token Zcash ($ZEC) rose over 17% in the last 24 hours, with the sudden price increase catching at least one trader on the wrong side of the market after a sizeable short position was fully liquidated.
According to Lookonchain, a trader referred to as '0x3c83,' who was previously long on Zcash, closed his position and flipped to short on 767.2 $ZEC, about $1 million worth. The timing, however, seemed to be wrong as Zcash rose higher.
$ZEC is pumping.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 17, 2026
Trader 0x3c83 closed his long and flipped to short on 767.2 $ZEC ($1M) 7 hours ago.
His short was just fully liquidated!https://t.co/mqie6oqRrI pic.twitter.com/U8b90Cyiv2
On Wednesday, Zcash saw a sharp surge, rising from $1,101 to $1,383. The rally continued early Thursday, with Zcash reaching $1,396. At the time of writing, Zcash still traded up 12.10% in the last 24 hours to $1,370.
As $ZEC price rose, the trader's newly opened short came under increasing pressure before being fully liquidated. According to Lookonchain, the trader's Zcash short position worth $1 million has now been fully liquidated.
Liquidations happen when the market moves against a trader's futures position. When traders bet on a cryptocurrency falling and the price unexpectedly rises, their short bets are liquidated because the exchange or broker closes them automatically. This is especially evident in leveraged trading, because the trader's collateral, or margin, is insufficient to cover potential losses caused by rapid market fluctuations against their bets.
Zcash price surges
Zcash rose above $1,300 for the first time since November 2016 as anticipation builds ahead of the Fed's rate decision.
According to an X post by CoinGecko, the move coincides with a recent governance vote, backing faster block times while maintaining its Bitcoin-style halving schedule. Zcash holders voted 99.9% to cut block times from 75 to 25 seconds and 97% backed delaying the network sustainability mechanism until February 2031.
$ZEC's surge coincided with comments from Matt Huang, co-founder of prominent crypto investment firm Paradigm, who highlighted its role as a privacy complement to Bitcoin and disclosed that his firm owns $ZEC, according to an X post.
The recent price increase has lifted $ZEC's market value to $22.98 billion, now ranking ninth among top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, above Hyperliquid at $20.24 billion.
$ZEC has gained 168% in the last 30 days and about 2,524% in one year, an outstanding performance among major cryptocurrencies.