Name: Zcash: Can ZEC hit $20,000 This Cycle?
Uploaded: 2026-09-18T16:28:25+00:00
Duration: 1946 s

Speakers

Taiki Maeda — Founder, HFA Research

Summary

Taiki Maeda gives a bull-market pep talk and makes a detailed bull case for Zcash, arguing it can reprice from roughly 2% to 5-20%+ of Bitcoin's market cap and potentially reach $20,000 if BTC reaches $100,000. He highlights Zcash's privacy and quantum differentiation, shielded-pool reflexivity, and on-chain usage, while outlining a first profit-taking level at 3-4% of BTC's market cap. He also favors large-cap crypto winners such as Hyperliquid, LIT, Zcash, and Bitcoin, and says he is farming Variational.

Taiki opens with a bull-market pep talk, arguing bears are wrong and crypto is in an early-stage rally.
He presents a Zcash bull case built on privacy, quantum readiness, and growth in the shielded pool.
Zcash valuation targets use the ZEC/BTC market-cap ratio: 5% bear case and 20% bull case, implying about $20k if BTC is $100k.
He outlines ZEC profit taking: first take-profit at 3-4% of BTC market cap, remove leverage, and hold spot for long-term gains.
He favors perp DEX tokens HYPE and LIT because they capture revenue/profits and perps are taking share from options.
He remains long Bitcoin and expects $100k, while acknowledging quantum and ossification concerns.
He advises betting big early in the bull market and concentrating in large-cap winners.
He mentions farming Variational and expects it to do fairly well.

Ideas

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 0:03

Zcash could reach $20k via BTC ratio.

Taiki argues Zcash is an emerging private store of value and a differentiated Bitcoin alternative. Bitcoin's weaknesses are programmability, scalability, and privacy; Ethereum/Solana addressed the first two, while Zcash targets privacy and is ahead of Bitcoin on its quantum roadmap. He believes ZEC's roughly 1.8-1.9% market-cap ratio to Bitcoin can reprice toward 5-10-20% (possible 30-40% in euphoria), using precedents such as Litecoin's 8% peak, Bitcoin Cash's 10-20% range, and silver/gold's 13%. Shielded-pool growth and price are reflexive: more shielded ZEC and a higher price make the privacy pool large enough for wealthier users. If BTC reaches $100k and ZEC reaches 20% of BTC's market cap, ZEC would be about $20k; he sees 5-10x as possible.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 1:30

Perp DEX tokens HYPE and LIT grow.

Taiki is bullish on perpetual DEX tokens, especially Hyperliquid (HYPE) and LIT. He believes perps will continue taking market share from options and the overall pie will grow; HYPE and LIT capture most revenue/profits and plow them back into the token, so if the businesses keep growing, the coins should rise independently of Bitcoin. He notes Hyperliquid around $90 with three-digit HYPE possible soon, LIT up about 3x since he bought and up to $5 from below $1, and that these coins are breaking the contrarian 'Taiki curse'.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 8:27

Taiki holds BTC, expects $100k.

Taiki argues the market is in a K-shaped/secular bull market where most alts go to zero but a few winners keep working independently of Bitcoin. He wants to bet big early, concentrate in high-conviction winners, ignore bearish four-year-cycle calls, and focus on large-cap crypto. He explicitly bets on HYPE, LIT, Zcash, and some Bitcoin, and expects sidelined bears to buy those winners once BTC breaks above roughly $83k-84k.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 32:08

Taiki farms Variational, expects it to perform.

At the end, Taiki says he is farming Variational and thinks it will do fairly well. The mention is brief and lacks a detailed fundamental rationale, but it is an explicit favorable positioning statement.

Zcash: Can ZEC hit $20,000 This Cycle?

Summary

Ideas

Up Next