The BitMEX co-founder and influential crypto investor once again drew attention by posting a direct appeal to Zcash (ZEC) holders on X.
“If you hold ZEC on a CEX, withdraw it to a self-custodial wallet and shield it,” he wrote.
His message comes amid exchange policies that restrict Zcash’s privacy functions. Most major platforms only support transparent addresses, while transfers to shielded wallets are disabled.
Reports have also surfaced of deposits from shielded pools being rejected or flagged for extra verification.
A long-time advocate of financial sovereignty, Hayes regularly urges users to withdraw assets from exchanges controlled by third parties, following the principle Not your keys, not your coins. He argues that self-custody protects users from bankruptcies, frozen accounts and censorship risks.
Zcash’s key feature is private transactions enabled by zk-SNARKs, a zero-knowledge proof technology. Yet most centralized exchanges default to transparent t-addresses for storage and withdrawals, stripping the coin of its core advantage – privacy.
ZEC is one of the largest holdings in Hayes’ Maelstrom fund, and his public comments are often seen as a show of confidence in the long-term value of privacy within crypto.
His post followed a recent ZEC rally that pushed the token above $500 last week, against the backdrop of growing global pressure on privacy coins.
While ZEC has performed strongly, tighter KYC and AML requirements combined with high volatility have made privacy-focused assets toxic for many centralized exchanges. Analysts say this trend is pushing platforms toward delisting such tokens.
At the Aspen Ideas Festival 2024, investor Peter Thiel remarked that Bitcoin has lost part of its original spirit of decentralization and freedom. He said the ideals of early cypherpunks and crypto-anarchists have been replaced by institutional interests.
“It seems that instead of a revolution, we got an ETF from BlackRock,” he said.
Read also:
- Programmable Privacy: How ZK Tech, AI & User Controls Are Setting the New Standard
- Zero-Knowledge Social Networks: Privacy, Identity & Communication on Web3
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