Grayscale has filed a fourth amended registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to convert its Zcash trust into an exchange-traded fund, while disclosing that a Digital Currency Group-affiliated entity is discussing a potential acquisition of roughly 200,000 ZEC through the proposed fund.
The prospective purchase, involving DCG International Investments Ltd., would amount to about $110 million at the price level cited in the filing materials. The discussions are nonbinding, and the entity may purchase more, fewer, or no shares at all, according to the amendment. Even so, the disclosure places a potentially large affiliated-party transaction alongside Grayscale’s effort to move Zcash into the U.S. exchange-traded product market.
The proposed fund would retain the Grayscale Zcash Trust name and the trading symbol ZCSH. Grayscale intends to list shares on NYSE Arca under that ticker if the SEC permits the conversion.
DCG-linked purchase remains conditional
The filing describes DCG International Investments as being in talks to acquire shares created through the trust’s structure, which would give it exposure to ZEC through the listed vehicle rather than requiring a direct purchase of tokens in the open market.
A 200,000-ZEC allocation would represent a substantial block of supply for a fund that is still seeking regulatory approval. Yet the amended statement makes clear that no binding commitment has been made, limiting the certainty around both the size and timing of any purchase.
Digital Currency Group is Grayscale’s parent company, making the disclosure particularly relevant for traders assessing early demand for the proposed ETF. A related-party buyer can help establish initial scale for a product, but it does not provide evidence of outside institutional demand or guarantee that the transaction will occur.
The filing’s language also means the proposed acquisition should not be treated as a completed purchase of ZEC. Any eventual transaction would depend on the trust’s creation process and the terms ultimately agreed by the parties.
Filing addresses Orchard security incident
Grayscale’s amendment also addresses the June Orchard vulnerability and the Ironwood upgrade that followed. Orchard is Zcash’s newer shielded-payment pool, designed to support private transactions in which payment amounts and addresses can be hidden from public view.
According to the registration statement, the Ironwood upgrade retired the shielded pool affected by the vulnerability and introduced safeguards intended to prevent counterfeit ZEC. Counterfeit-token risk is especially serious for an asset-backed fund because the sponsor must be able to establish that the cryptocurrency held by the trust is valid and that the fund’s share value rests on authentic underlying assets.
The security discussion gives the filing a more practical purpose than a routine naming or listing update. A spot crypto fund requires clear procedures for custody, valuation, creation and redemption, and the handling of network events. Zcash’s privacy technology and its history of protocol upgrades add operational questions that a prospective issuer must address in documents intended for public-market distribution.
Grayscale has not presented the Ironwood upgrade as a guarantee against every future software or cryptographic risk. The amendment instead describes a specific response to the Orchard issue: retiring the affected pool and adding protections against the creation of invalid coins.
A crowded product pipeline
The Zcash amendment arrives as Grayscale continues to seek exchange-traded products tied to crypto assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. The asset manager has also submitted proposals involving a staked Avalanche product, a Hyperliquid ETF and a spot fund designed to track Worldcoin.
Those filings illustrate a shift in the competition among crypto fund sponsors. The first wave of U.S. spot crypto ETFs centered on the largest and most liquid assets, where price benchmarks, custody arrangements and derivatives markets were relatively mature. Funds tied to smaller or more specialized tokens face a different task: they must show how the product can function around a network’s technical design, liquidity profile and market structure.
Zcash presents an additional challenge because its shielded transaction capability has long made the network a focal point in debates over financial privacy and compliance. A U.S.-listed Zcash ETF would not itself make all fund activity private. ETF shares would trade on NYSE Arca, while the trust’s ZEC holdings and transaction processes would be managed under the fund structure described in its SEC registration documents.
That separation may make a listed vehicle easier for some market participants to access than self-custodying ZEC, but it does not eliminate the scrutiny likely to accompany an ETF linked to a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency.
ZEC market activity has cooled since late 2025
Spot ZEC ETF volume exceeded $23 million during a peak in November 2025 before flattening in 2026, according to the dashboard figures referenced in the supplied material. ZCSH had not recorded more than $5 million in trading volume since June under those figures.
The market snapshot supplied with the filing report placed ZEC near $555 after a gain of almost 10% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization close to $9.4 billion. Short-term price moves do not establish whether the ETF conversion will be approved or whether DCG International Investments will complete its contemplated purchase.
The next material developments are likely to come through SEC correspondence, further amendments, a formal agency decision or a completed share purchase disclosed by the parties. Until then, Grayscale’s fourth amendment advances the administrative process while leaving the proposed ETF and the 200,000-ZEC acquisition subject to unresolved conditions.
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