Arthur Hayes Says Zcash Is His Largest Crypto Position Outside Bitcoin
Arthur Hayes has put Zcash at the center of his crypto thesis, saying in an interview with Unchained founder Laura Shin that ZEC is now “probably my largest position outside of Bitcoin.” The BitMEX co-founder framed the trade as a bet on rising demand for financial privacy as AI, Big Tech and governments make public-chain activity easier to analyze. Hayes said he views Zcash as the strongest privacy asset in crypto, while acknowledging that the debate between Zcash, Monero and other privacy coins remains unsettled. “I think Zcash is the best,” Hayes said. He added that he is “not a cryptographer,” but said his view was shaped by reading competing arguments and speaking with developers working directly on privacy systems. His argument was not that Bitcoin should become fully private. Hayes said Bitcoin’s transparent ledger still has advantages for accountability, but argued that transparency comes with a growing trade-off as surveillance tools improve. “With AI, big tech and big governm