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Mar 19, 2026 upd. 10 Jun

Cypherpunk CIO says Zcash is mispriced as privacy demand grows

2 min

Cypherpunk CIO: Zcash is “most mispriced” as AI surveillance grows

Cypherpunk Technologies CIO Will McEvoy says the market ignores how to price privacy and undervalues Zcash. He set out valuation scenarios across Bitcoin, gold, offshore wealth, stablecoins, and Monero in a new thread on X.

“The market has no real framework for valuing privacy so it gets ignored,” he wrote. “The upside is asymmetric nonetheless.” Source.

At the time of his post, he put ZEC at $263 and $4.4 billion in market cap. He contrasted that with Bitcoin at $1.45 trillion, gold at $34.8 trillion, offshore wealth at $11.3 trillion, stablecoins at $312 billion, and Monero at $6.8 billion. “Just a rounding error,” he said. Source.

Versus Bitcoin thread, context:

  • 0.5% of BTC value implies $446
  • 1% implies $891
  • 2% implies $1,782
  • 5% implies $4,456

“Zcash is encrypted Bitcoin.” Source.

Versus offshore wealth ($11.3T) thread:

  • 0.1% share implies $680
  • 0.5% implies $3,402
  • 1% implies $6,804

“Zcash is a Swiss bank account in your pocket.” Source.

Versus gold ($34.8T) context, thread:

  • 0.05% implies $1,048
  • 0.1% implies $2,095
  • 0.5% implies $10,477

Versus stablecoins ($312B) context, thread:

  • 5% share implies $939
  • 10% implies $1,877
  • 25% implies $4,692

“Stablecoin transactions are tracked. Wallets are surveilled.” Source.

Versus Monero thread:

  • Parity with Monero implies $410
  • 2x Monero implies $819
  • 5x Monero implies $2,047

He cites “stronger cryptography, optional transparency for compliance, and better scalability.” Source.

McEvoy ties it to AI. “Artificial intelligence is the attack. Zcash is the defense.” As AI expands surveillance, he argues privacy gains value. Source.

Zcash price chart