Grayscale moves closer to launching first Zcash ETF in US with fresh amended SEC filing

Grayscale is inching closer to launching its Zcash (ZEC) exchange-traded fund, filing its fifth amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

The proposed ETF would convert Grayscale's existing Zcash Trust, bringing the product closer to a spot ETF structure — and the first in the U.S. to directly track the privacy-related asset.

In its latest amendment, Grayscale said the trust would be renamed The Zcash ETF. A sponsor fee was also set at an annual rate of 2.5%, according to the latest filing.

The ETF would list on NYSE Arca, Inc. under the ticker symbol ZCH. The Bank of New York Mellon would serve as the transfer agent and Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC as the custodian.

"The Trust intends to issue Shares on a continuous basis and is registering an indeterminate number of Shares," Grayscale said in the filing on Friday. "It is expected that the Shares will be sold to the public at varying prices to be determined by reference to, among other considerations, the price of ZEC and the trading price of the Shares on the NYSE Arca at the time of each sale."

In its fourth amended filing earlier this week, Grayscale said that a Digital Currency Group subsidiary was in discussions to potentially contribute about 200,000 ZEC to the fund.

Grayscale has launched over a dozen crypto ETFs, including bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and XRP. The company's Zcash Trust has been running since 2017 and, as of Friday, has over $260 million in assets under management.

Zcash is the 12th-largest crypto by market capitalization, according to The Block's data page. The digital asset was created in 2016 and is designed to be focused on privacy.

If the SEC greenlights Grayscale's Zcash ETF, it would be the first of its kind in the U.S.

"Looks like they're getting closer and closer to converting this thing into an ETF," said Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Analyst James Seyffart on Friday in a post on X.