Winklevoss Says Zcash Feels Like Bitcoin in 2019 — Is the Comparison Actually Holding Up?

• Zcash is drawing comparisons to Bitcoin’s 2019 market sentiment as interest in ZEC continues to soar.
• Gemini has moved to Zakura ahead of Zcash’s NU7 upgrade to improve speed and node performance.
• Zcash’s financial privacy focus attracts more attention as blockchain transparency concerns grow.

Zcash (ZEC) is being compared to Bitcoin’s early market sentiment as its price stays around $1,400 after falling from nearly $1,600.

Notably, Interest in Zcash is growing ahead of the network’s upcoming NU7 upgrade. Gemini has already moved its Zcash system to a new node to support faster transactions and better performance.

Gemini’s head of marketing, Olivia Santarelli, said the excitement around ZEC reminds her of how Bitcoin felt when she first entered the crypto market in 2019. 

Interestingly, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss agreed with her comparison, replying, “100%.”

Why Winklevoss Compares Zcash to Bitcoin in 2019

The comparison is mainly about market sentiment. In 2019, Bitcoin was recovering from a major downturn, and investors were becoming more optimistic about its future.

Santarelli believes Zcash is seeing a similar change. More people are becoming interested in Zcash, even though it has traditionally received less attention than Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.

However, the situations are not exactly the same. ZEC is already up 1,952% over the past year, so it is not simply recovering from a long decline.

Zcash is also getting more attention because of its focus on financial privacy. As blockchain use grows, concerns about how transparent crypto transactions are have also increased.

Notably, the Winklevoss twins have previously shown strong interest in Zcash. About 10 months ago, they invested $100 million in the privacy-focused cryptocurrency. They said privacy will become important as the crypto industry develops alongside artificial intelligence. Their latest comments show that they remain positive about Zcash’s long-term potential. 

Gemini Moves to Zakura Ahead of Zcash’s NU7 Upgrade

Meanwhile, Gemini is preparing for an important Zcash network upgrade called NU7. The exchange has switched to Zakura, a new Zcash node software built with Rust. It is designed to speed up the network, use less storage, and recover faster when a node needs to restart.

The upgrade is expected in November. Zcash users recently voted to reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. This means the network will produce blocks about three times faster, putting more pressure on the computers that run the network.

Gemini upgraded its systems ahead of time so the change does not affect customer service.

Zakura has also shown strong performance in testing:

• It can fully sync in about 4 hours and 20 minutes, compared with almost 21 hours for Zebra.
• At Gemini, Zakura reached the latest block in just over 6 hours, while Zebra took nearly a full day.
• Its smaller snapshots are about 12 GB, which can make rebuilding a node much faster.

For Gemini customers, nothing changes. Deposits and withdrawals will continue as normal, while the technical improvements happen behind the scenes.

Zcash’s Privacy Focus Gets More Attention

Gemini has been supporting Zcash for years. It first listed ZEC in 2018, later added private withdrawals in 2020, and added more Zcash features in 2025.

By adding Zakura, Gemini is preparing its systems to handle more private Zcash payments as the network grows. The combination of new technology and growing market interest helps explain the optimism from Winklevoss and Santarelli.

Whether Zcash can stay above around $1,400 and return to its recent highs will depend on demand and continued community interest, especially as the network’s performance evolves after the NU7 upgrade.

Related: Zcash Sets November 5 Target for NU7 Mainnet Upgrade and Faster Blocks