Zcash Flashes Golden Cross: One VP Backing The Privacy Coin Calls It Bitcoin's 'Most Credible Complement'

• Zcash's 9-day moving average crossed above its 21-day moving average, signaling a potential bullish trend reversal.
• A similar crossover in April preceded a 185% rally that carried ZEC from roughly $240 to a June peak near $684.
• Placeholder CEO Chris Burniske recently described Zcash as the "most credible complement" to Bitcoin among internet-native hard-money assets.

Zcash (ZEC) flashed a bullish "golden cross" on its short-term chart on Monday, with the shorter-term moving average crossing above the longer-term one, as the privacy coin rebounded sharply from June's lows — a setup crypto investor Chris Burniske says makes ZEC the closest thing to Bitcoin's "hard money" appeal.

According to the chart, Zcash's nine-day moving average has moved above its 21-day moving average, with ZEC trading around $511, above both lines, after bottoming out between $340 and $400 in late June and early July. 

The setup mirrored a classic Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) bullish crossover, where a shorter-term average overtaking a longer-term one is typically read as a signal that near-term momentum is turning positive.

Is April Repeating Itself?

This was similar to the scenario seen in late April, when a similar MACD crossover preceded ZEC’s rise from around $240 to its June top near $684. The histogram bars were much smaller this time around, however, indicating that the momentum shift had been more moderate so far. During the June sell-off, the indicator fell to around -30 before this recovery began, so traders will likely watch to see whether the MACD line can hold above zero.

ZEC’s price was down nearly 4% during the past 24 hours. However, in the past week, the token was up over 13%. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ZEC shifted to ‘bullish’ from the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels over the past day.

Zcash As Bitcoin's Closest Complement

Separately, Chris Burniske, co-founder of crypto venture firm Placeholder VC, called ZEC "the most credible complement to $BTC" among internet-native hard monies on Sunday.

Burniske said reading Lyn Alden's book "Broken Money" reinforced his view that Bitcoin and similar assets reward patience, arguing that the 2016-2025 period was marked by impatience as crowds treated blockchains as "simply another tech platform" without grasping that Bitcoin is "more of a social reboot than a technological one,” a shift he said takes decades to play out. He added that capital is now rotating back toward assets that "understood all along."

Ironwood Upgrade Approaches

Much of the move seems to be tied to Zcash's upcoming Ironwood upgrade (NU6.3), confirmed for activation on July 28 at block height 3.4 million.

The upgrade introduces a newly hardened, formally verified shielded pool that lets users independently confirm that ZEC's circulating supply is sound, addressing a counterfeiting vulnerability disclosed in the network's Orchard shielded pool in early June. 

That bug was patched within days with no confirmed exploitation, but the disclosure alone triggered a sharp pullback in ZEC's price at the time. The token has since recovered as confidence builds ahead of the Ironwood rollout.

Read also: Tom Lee Says Robinhood's Blockchain Is One Of 2026's 'Biggest Success Stories'

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