What Is the ZCash Investment Trust?

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts are well aware of what the Bitcoin Investment Trust is. This investment vehicle allows institutional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin price fluctuations without having to buy the cryptocurrency itself. However, there is also a ZCash Investment Trust, which was officially filed with the SEC recently. It will be interesting to see if this project can gain any significant traction.

ZCash Investment Trust is an Intriguing Creature

All cryptocurrencies and digital assets in existence want to get more mainstream exposure. Until that happens, the few cryptocurrencies most consumers will know about are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and perhaps Litecoin. Everything else will be irrelevant to them, even though none of these other currencies are any more difficult to obtain compared to Bitcoin itself. ZCash is one of those currencies very few people are even aware of, but that situation may come to change very soon.

More specifically, institutional investors may soon find themselves in a position to profit from the ZCash price volatility – that is, assuming the ZCash Investment Trust is officially approved by the SEC. On paper, this shouldn’t be much of an issue, considering that there is also a Bitcoin Investment Trust in place right now. ZCash is a very different currency, though, and its privacy aspect may be of some concern to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That said, the ZCash Investment Trust has officially filed with the SEC a little while ago. The goal is to serve as a similar investment vehicle as the Bitcoin Investment Trust, but with ZCash. It appears that just under US$12 million worth of ZCash has been purchased to provide enough liquidity to get the ball rolling. At the time of purchase, ZEC was valued at US$230.44.

A Medium post explained that this supply was purchased using the Bitfinex exchange. That makes a lot of sense, as Bitfinex is one of the most popular exchanges when it comes to ZEC trading in general. Ever since this currency was released, a lot of the initial hype has calmed down as the price has returned to somewhat normal levels. That being said, the available ZEC supply is still pretty scarce, with just over 2.56 million coins in circulation at the time of writing.

Assuming this investment vehicle receives official approval from the SEC, things may get very interesting for this particular cryptocurrency. Being able to diversify one’s crypto portfolio through traditional investment options is something a lot of people will appreciate. Whether or not it will have a noticeable effect on the ZCash price, however, remains to be determined. Right now, ZEC is valued at US$230.23 and no one really knows how much upward potential this currency has in the future.

For now, we will all have to wait and see what the SEC decides to do with this filing, though there is no real reason to reject it offhand. It is certainly true that all cryptocurrency-related investment trusts have risen in value since their launches. Whether or not the ZCash variant can achieve similar results remains to be determined.