Zcash (ZEC) – one of the biggest icons of privacy in the cryptocurrency ecosystem – is experiencing a major shake-up as on-chain data analytics platform Arkham announced the ability to de-anonymize more than half of the transactions on the Zcash network. This development comes at a time when ZEC price has skyrocketed in recent days, bringing more attention to the coin’s true level of privacy.
On December 9, ZEC briefly surpassed the $750 mark after the market was triggered by a series of major legal events in the US. The Trump administration seized 127,000 BTC related to “Prince Group” Chairman Chen Zhi, and arrested Qian Zhimin, who is suspected of leading a 60,000 BTC money laundering ring. These large-scale cases have caused investors to focus their attention on coins associated with privacy protection, of which ZEC has emerged as the strongest.
However, Zcash ’s “absolute anonymity” narrative was shaken when Arkham unexpectedly launched its own on-chain tracking feature for the network. The blockchain analytics platform said it had labeled more than half of all transactions, including shielded and unshielded transactions, worth a total of $420 billion. This means that a huge amount of data that was once XEM untraceable has now been linked to specific individuals and organizations.
According to Arkham data, 53% of Zcash transactions have been tagged, 48% of all inputs and outputs can be attributed to known entities, and about 37% of all ZEC in circulation – equivalent to $2.5 billion – has been tagged by Arkham . These numbers shocked the community because Zcash Capital been promoted since its launch as a coin that uses zero-knowledge proofs to ensure maximum privacy.
