Right after South Korean authorities decided to raid Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Bitcoin’s price slipped to $8,500 right after going back to around $9,000 a few days earlier. However, things are quite different for Zcash. Zcash experienced a bullish trend after Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss included the cryptocurrency on their platform.
Winklevoss twins are known for challenging Bill Gates on shorting Bitcoin after the Microsoft billionaire gave his opinion on cryptocurrencies.
Zcash surged by 47{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} to $364. Zcash added around $462.8 million in its market capitalization reaching a total of $1.5 billion now. Gemini is now the very first licensed Zcash exchange. Zcash trading will start May 22. And what exactly makes the cryptocurrency different compared to that of Bitcoin?
In a press release by Gemini, the company focused on how Zcash can co-exist with Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been billed as a highly private cryptocurrency. On the other hand, Zcash, was created as a more private version by encrypting transactions.
Prone to Criminal Use?
Unfortunately, because of the extra privacy that you get from Zcash, it has a drawback of attracting criminals. However, this can still be helpful to an average Joe. For instance, you can opt to pay via Zcash for a surprise anniversary gift. Tyler Winklevoss, the CEO of Gemini mentioned that “Zcash picks up where Bitcoin left off”. He mentioned that “Bitcoin has many strengths, but privacy is not one of them” considering the development of crypto forensics.
As for Cameron Winklevoss, the president of Gemini, he mentioned that “Bitcoin and Zcash are two revolutionary technologies vying for different mantles, Bitcoin being digital gold and Zcash being digital cash”.
Allegations of Insider Trading
Winklevoss twins are known for becoming Bitcoin billionaires. They have around 120,000 Bitcoins as of January. And also, it is quite unclear whether or not the brothers are the ones behind Zcash. This isn’t actually far from the realm of possibilities considering that the twins have already faced allegations of insider trading after they have launched the trade of a new digital coin on their platform.
Coinbase, which is the largest US-based crypto exchange, also faced class-action lawsuit in the past after the price of Bitcoin Cash spiked hours before Coinbase announced that trading would start.
Zcash founding member CEO Bryce “Zooko” Wilcox snubbed this trend and posted a photo of Zcash’s price as it spiked up after Gemini’s announcement.
There will be three new pairs for trading Zcash (ZEC). It will be ZEC/USD, ZEC/BTC, and ZEC/ETH.
Eric Winer, the vice president of engineering at Gemini mentioned that “We have been working closely with the New York State Department of Financial Services to obtain approval to offer Zcash trading and custody services to our customers as a New York trust company”.
In addition to Zcash, Gemini is also going to include both Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash in their growing number of cryptocurrencies in the future.
Considering the how crypto forensics is developing, it seems that Zcash is hoping to attract individuals who are quite particular about the privacy of their transactions. Unfortunately, this could also mean that this cryptocurrency could be the next favorite among criminals for their illicit activities.
