TSB: Confidential DeFi? Why institutions need privacy to go all in on crypto
Speakers
Luke Deans
— Senior Research Associate, Bitwise Europe
Rand Hindi
— CEO & Founder, Zama
Summary
Luke Deans of Bitwise Europe provides a cautious Bitcoin outlook, highlighting key on-chain cost basis levels to watch for a breakout. Rand Hindi of Zama explains how confidential DeFi can unlock institutional crypto adoption, expresses a bullish view on Zcash and the Zama token as the dominant privacy layer.
- Bitcoin remains in a risk-off structure with $76k and $69.5k as critical on-chain levels to monitor for a trend reversal.
- Low trading volume across spot, futures, and ETF markets suggests the recent rally lacks strong conviction.
- Institutional ETF flows are price-sensitive and currently absent, but long-term holder accumulation is gradually absorbing sell pressure.
- Rand Hindi outlines Zama's confidentiality protocol as an encryption layer enabling private DeFi on public chains like Ethereum.
- He holds Zcash and predicts it could reach a $1 trillion market cap as a private store of value akin to Bitcoin.
- Zama aims to become the dominant privacy protocol for on-chain finance, capturing 95% of transactions, with all financial layer revenue accruing to its token.
- He argues base infrastructure fees are racing to zero, pushing value toward the financial application layer.
Ideas
BTC needs breakout above $76k.
Bitcoin remains in a risk-off technical structure with lower lows and lower highs. On-chain aggregate cost basis of active investors is around $76,000, while short-term holders' cost basis is $69,500. Until price breaks above $76k, the rally is likely a relief bounce or dead cat bounce, not a true bullish breakout.
Zama token will dominate privacy.
Zama will become the HTTPS of blockchain, the dominant confidentiality protocol encrypting 95% of on-chain financial transactions. All revenue from the financial protocol layer (swaps, vaults, stablecoins, RWAs) will accrue to the Zama token, creating massive long-term value.
Zcash could reach $1 trillion.
Zcash is a private store of value similar to Bitcoin, with a clear role as a confidential store of value. It could reach a $1 trillion market cap in the future. He personally holds Zcash and believes it has huge upside.
Up Next
This The Block video, published July 16, 2026, features Luke Deans, Rand Hindi discussing BTC, ZAMA, ZEC. 3 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Luke Deans, Rand Hindi · Tickers: BTC, ZAMA, ZEC