Why is Zcash up today?

Zcash is up 1.9% over 24 hours to $1,212, a modest bounce after Thursday's 16% slide to $1,115 that erased all gains since Sept. 16 and triggered roughly $38 million in leveraged long liquidations. That drop still leaves ZEC down 6.0% on the week, underperforming Bitcoin's 2.3% weekly decline.

The rebound coincides with a cluster of protocol news. Zcash developers, including the Zakura full-node team from Valar Group and Project Tachyon, have set a January target for post-quantum signatures on transparent addresses, where roughly seven in 10 ZEC sit, alongside a private-lookup tool that lets wallets check balances without linking addresses. THORChain also went live with native ZEC swaps on Oct. 8, and the Winklevoss twins pitched a low-fee spot Zcash ETF at Token2049.

Broader sentiment remains fragile: Bitcoin is up just 1.0% at $82,586, with headlines on a suspected $86 million Ledger exploit, DOJ scrutiny of Binance's 2023 settlement and a planned $1 billion US seizure of Iran-linked crypto keeping risk appetite subdued.