Grayscale makes fourth amendment to NYSE Arca-bound Zcash Trust

Grayscale is making moves that, if successful, will make Zcash Trust a US spot exchange-traded fund that would trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH. 

The latest move is that the digital asset-focused investment platform filed a fourth amendment to its Form S-3 registration statement for Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZEC) on August 18 to set the stage for what is to come. 

If it is cleared, it would be the first American ETF tracking a privacy coin, giving stock-market investors a regulated route to ZEC.

What changes are in the fourth amendment?

The filing, listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), restates how shares of the trust are created and redeemed. 

According to the S-3/A, the trust will handle both creations and redemptions mainly through cash orders, while still allowing authorized participants to create shares in-kind by delivering ZEC. 

Redemptions in-kind are not permitted as of the filing date.

The trust is a Delaware statutory trust sponsored by Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC. 

Coinbase is the prime broker, and Coinbase Custody Trust Company holds the ZEC. The Bank of New York Mellon is acting as transfer agent and administrator, the filing states. 

The trust will be renamed by Grayscale once the registration takes effect and the shares begin trading on the exchange.

A DCG affiliate could seed the fund with 200,000 ZEC

The amendment also discloses non-binding talks between the sponsor and DCG International Investments Ltd, an indirect subsidiary of Grayscale’s parent, Digital Currency Group. 

Under the arrangement being discussed, DCG International Investments could buy shares through an authorized participant by handing over 200,000 ZEC.

Why a privacy-coin ETF is a first

ZEC is the token of the Zcash network, which lets users shield transaction details using zero-knowledge cryptography. 

Regulated investment products have been wary of tokens with privacy features like ZEC, and this is why the conversion of Zcash Trust into a listed fund would break new ground.

ZEC has risen by more than 9% in the 24 hours after the filing was disclosed. It is currently trading around $555 per CoinMarketCap data.

Demand for the existing trust has been building for months. In April, ZCSH averaged roughly $1.7 million in daily volume, which is more than double March’s level, and the growth is seen as a sign that institutional appetite for privacy assets has not waned. 

Over the same stretch, the share of ZEC sitting in shielded balances went up to nearly 30% of circulating supply, a record. The network’s Orchard pool grew from 1.92 million to 4.55 million ZEC over twelve months, according to data from The Block.

A privacy coin still recovering from a scare

While it has seen some growth, the year has been relatively rough for Zcash. After security researcher Taylor Hornby disclosed a flaw in the Orchard shielded pool in mid-2026 that could have let an attacker mint counterfeit ZEC, some investors lost faith in the token. 

ZEC fell from $602 to near $299 when the news broke in June. However, the flaw was patched by its developers within days. They said that they found no sign that it was exploited and followed up with the Ironwood upgrade to detect any counterfeit coins.

A regulated ETF built on that same network would hand traditional investors exposure to an asset whose privacy design cuts both ways.

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