Arthur Hayes Issues Urgent Zcash Warning Amid Price Crash

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Hassan Shittu

Journalist

Hassan Shittu

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A Cryptonews.com journalist with over 6 years of experience in Web3 journalism, Hassan brings deep knowledge across the Crypto, Web3 Gaming, NFT and Play-to-Earn sectors. His work has appeared in…

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Last update:

November 12, 2025

The privacy coin market returned to headlines this week after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes issued a stark warning to Zcash holders, urging them to withdraw their tokens from centralized exchanges or risk losing the very privacy the asset was meant to protect.

On Wednesday, Hayes took to X (formerly Twitter). Attention users that keeping Zcash (ZEC) on centralized platforms undermines the coin’s anonymity.

In his post, Hayes referred to a privacy-enhancing feature of the network that allows users to hide transaction details through “shadow” addresses.

Privacy at Risk: BitMEX Co-Founder Warns ZEC Users Against Self-Administration

The warning came as the price of Zcash endured wild swings during the week. The token jumped to $723 on Saturday, fell to $504 on Sunday, then briefly rebounded to $677 on Monday before plunging again.

By Wednesday, ZEC was trading around $450, down 37% from its weekend high. Despite the decline, the coin remains roughly 5% higher over the past seven days, according to on CoinMarketCap, with a total market capitalization of around $7.4 billion.

Analysts have previously warned that the token is overheating, noting that its Relative Strength Index (RSI) has reached overbought levels. after a dramatic 1700% rally since September.

Zcash has climbed from around $40 to over $700 in less than two months, an explosive rise rarely seen in older privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

Hayes’ comments reignited long-running debates about privacy, regulation and self-governance in the crypto industry.

Zcash’s unique privacy model supports two types of addresses: transparent “t-addresses” that act like bitcoin wallets and make all transactions visible on the blockchain, and “shielded” or “z-addresses” that use zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARK) to hide the sender, receiver and transaction amounts.

However, most centralized exchanges only support transparent addresses, which means that Zcash held or traded through these platforms loses its privacy.

Hayes’ warning shows this fundamental contradiction, as holding ZEC on CEX effectively makes it a traceable, pseudonymous asset, contrary to the basic principles of the project.

In addition to privacy, the issue exposes users to several jail and regulatory risks. Centralized exchanges control users private keysmaking tokens vulnerable to withdrawal freezes, delisting or even insolvency as seen in high-profile collapses like FTX.

Privacy tokens in focus as exchanges rethink compliance

Privacy coins are also facing increasing regulatory scrutiny worldwide, particularly from jurisdictions that associate such assets with illegal activity.

New frameworks are emerging in the European Union, such as Mica fueled speculation that some exchanges might remove privacy coins entirely to comply with the standards.

Monero (XMR), another major privacy coin, has faced similar challenges in recent years several exchanges have removed it due to compliance concerns.

Despite these headwinds, Monero has managed to hold steady, trading around $382 with a market cap close to $7 billion, and has seen a 7% gain over the past week.

In contrast, other privacy-focused assets such as Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), and Canton (CC) saw weekly losses ranging from 13% to 42%, underscoring volatility across the sector.

Zcash’s latest turbulence also coincides with renewed speculation about its origins and connection to early cryptographic research.

In recent days, social media platforms are full of discussions that have been connecting for a long time Zcash Developer Daira-Emma Hopwood to Bitcoin’s Elusive CreatorSatoshi Nakamoto.

The rumors resurfaced after an old interview with Hopwood circulated online, initially causing confusion about her identity and prompting a wave of mixed and at times transphobic comments.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have pointed to overlapping academic work between Hopwood’s privacy research and Satoshi’s early writings, noting shared technical concepts such as key blinding and group signatures.

While there is no concrete evidence linking Hopwood to Bitcoin’s creator, renewed speculation has added a layer of intrigue to Zcash’s extraordinary rally.