Winklevoss Asset Services, the manager controlled by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6 for a spot Zcash ETF that would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK. The fund would hold ZEC directly, with Gemini Trust Company, an affiliate of the sponsor, keeping the coins in segregated cold storage. The filing puts a second US-listed Zcash product in the review pipeline barely six weeks after the first one started trading.
The structure matches the pattern used by most American crypto exchange-traded products. Authorized participants would deposit cash to create baskets of shares, and the trust would buy ZEC with that money. Redemptions work in reverse: the trust sells ZEC and hands the cash proceeds back to participants. Net asset value would be computed each business day from a time-weighted average of executed trades on major ZEC venues. CSC Delaware Trust Company serves as trustee. The trust is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is not a commodity pool under the Commodity Exchange Act, the same carve-outs other crypto funds use.
Two affiliates add backing beyond the paperwork. Winklevoss Capital Fund stated a nonbinding interest in buying up to $100 million of shares from authorized participants or on the secondary market once the fund launches. Cypherpunk Technologies, a crypto treasury firm that holds roughly $440 million in ZEC, signed on as the Zcash Ecosystem Partner to provide technical guidance and help run coinholder polling on protocol decisions. Cypherpunk earlier acquired control of about 18 percent of the Zcash network hashrate through its mining operations, which makes it one of the most concentrated outside voices around the protocol.
Taking on Grayscale
The filing sets up a direct contest with Grayscale, whose own Zcash ETF has traded on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH since August 25. The Grayscale product drew $233 million in inflows in its first weeks, executed a 3-for-1 forward share split with adjusted trading starting September 30, and took a roughly $100 million in-kind contribution from DCG International Investments, the indirect parent of Grayscale, in exchange for 85,705 ZEC in September.
| Winklevoss WINK | Grayscale ZCSH | |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | Nasdaq | NYSE Arca |
| Status | S-1 filed October 6, pending review | Trading since August 25, 2026 |
| Custodian | Gemini Trust Company | Grayscale internal custody |
| Holding | Direct ZEC, cash creations | Direct ZEC |
| Sponsor backing | $100 million nonbinding interest | $100 million DCG contribution |
ZEC traded near $1,354 on October 6, up 4.2 percent over the prior 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Market capitalization stood at slightly under $23 billion, with 16.97 million coins circulating against a fixed cap of 21 million. The all-time high remains $3,191, which leaves the current price about 57 percent below that peak. Daily volume sat near $807 million.
Privacy coins reach institutional desks
Zcash has spent most of its life in a separate bucket from the assets Wall Street tracks. The network launched in 2016 and uses zero-knowledge proofs to shield transaction amounts and counterparties. Those privacy features drew the wrong kind of attention during past regulatory waves: several large exchanges delisted ZEC between 2021 and 2024 as regulators pressed venues on anonymity-enhanced coins, and Japanese and Korean platforms pulled it outright. The idea of a US-listed fund holding ZEC looked remote through all of it.
Two filings inside three months say otherwise. Grayscale moved first in August with ZCSH, and the Winklevoss S-1 arrived the same week the SEC reportedly had 16 crypto ETF applications on its October calendar under new generic listing standards meant to shorten approval timelines. Whether regulators treat shielded transfers as a custody problem is the question the review will answer. Gemini operates under a New York trust charter, and the filing leans on that status for the custody arrangements.
The Winklevoss bet also rests on a price story that has already played out once. ZEC climbed from under $60 in late 2024 to a $3,191 high this year, a run driven partly by the Cypherpunk treasury accumulation and by Grayscale’s launch anticipation. Funds amplify both directions. ZCSH inflows coincided with the rally, and a Winklevoss product would give institutional desks a second route into a coin that still trades on fewer large venues than any other top-20 asset by market cap.
Nothing trades yet. An S-1 becomes effective only after SEC review, and Nasdaq must separately approve the listing before the ticker goes live. No effectiveness date has been set, and the preliminary prospectus flags that details remain subject to change. Recent crypto S-1s have taken several months from filing to debut, so the earliest realistic start for WINK sits in late 2026 or early 2027, assuming no regulatory objection to the underlying asset.
For the twins, the filing extends a strategy that started with their bitcoin trust in 2013, later converted into a ETF, and then an ether product. ZEC is their first move outside the two largest coins. The $100 million backstop is nonbinding, so the real test comes later: whether buyers of a privacy coin ETF show up the way they did for bitcoin funds, or whether ZEC ends up as a niche product with thin volume and wide spreads. Grayscale’s $233 million first run suggests the demand is real, though one product on one exchange is a small sample.