Grayscale Pledges $1 Million to Zcash as ZEC Slides

Four Zcash groups receive the first grants

The Zcash Foundation, Pretty Good Policy for Zcash, Shielded Labs and Project Tachyon were each awarded $100,000, Grayscale said. The company disclosed the award amounts and recipients on Tuesday. Its announcement gave no schedule or recipients for the remaining $600,000.

The Zcash Foundation works on open-source software and research, while Pretty Good Policy for Zcash focuses on explaining financial privacy to policymakers. Shielded Labs’ Epoch program is researching ways to protect the network against future advances in quantum computing.

Project Tachyon, led by Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe, is developing a proposed upgrade for shielded payments. The team aims to make it easier for wallets to stay up to date and to let the network handle more transactions that can keep payment details off the public record. Deploying such an upgrade would require a separate network decision.

Grayscale’s awards add a source of funding alongside the network’s existing mechanisms. An October Zcash development funding proposal dealt with how to allocate a share of newly issued ZEC and drew up a separate treasury transfer. Grayscale’s money comes from the fund sponsor.

ZCSH keeps its 2.5% annual fee

The fund’s quarterly report filed with the SEC explains how the arrangement works. The trust accrues the 2.5% annual fee daily in dollars and pays the sponsor in ZEC. The sponsor then uses its own funds for the voluntary program and retains the right to change or end it.

The 12-month period is measured from August 24, when the fund’s registration statement took effect. Grayscale’s Zcash Invest site reported $3.2 million in revenue available to reinvest as of October 31. That figure covers a broader pool of potential spending, including marketing and education.

Because the fee depends on the value of the trust’s assets, changes in the ZEC price and the amount the trust holds can affect future fee revenue. Grayscale’s fund data put its assets under management at about $607 million on November 10, when it held roughly 577,362 ZEC.

Zcash Invest expands Grayscale’s ZCSH campaign

The campaign opened with a wrap of The Wall Street Journal and is scheduled to extend to print, outdoor advertising, streaming and social media. The site brings together Zcash educational material and data about ZEC and ZCSH. It uses a zebra as its main visual, a motif associated with the Zcash community.

Owning ZCSH shares gives brokerage customers exposure to the price of ZEC, after fund expenses. Using Zcash for payments requires access to ZEC itself and a wallet that supports the type of transaction a user wants to make. The fund’s share price can also trade above or below the value of its assets per share during the U.S. session.

The wider market showed weaker sentiment on Wednesday. Alternative.me’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 29 from 32 on Tuesday.

Grayscale has yet to detail how it will split the rest of the available fee revenue among grants, advertising and support for the fund. Further award announcements would show how much of the $1 million pledge has been allocated and which projects receive the balance.