In the crypto market, every great narrative is reborn.

This Renaissance has now entered the realm of "privacy".

In just two months, $ZEC surged from $40 to $750 (reaching approximately $741 on November 7th), an increase of nearly 20 times. The long-dormant privacy narrative has been completely revitalized, and ZK has once again become the absolute central term in the crypto world.

The ZEC price chart acts like a flag, announcing the return of the ZK narrative. But amidst this frenzy, the smartest money is already stirring, searching for the next ultimate ZK Beta to ride this wave, and those who have chosen $PROVE (Succinct) are likely not few.

Eye of the Storm: Why is ZK narrative experiencing a full-scale revival?

The surge in $ZEC is no accident; it's the result of a convergence of three forces: institutions, communities, and technological trends. We are on the eve of an AI-driven explosion of rigid demand for "verifiable computing" and "privacy."

If you haven't felt the heat of this wave yet, you may have missed the following signals:

Arthur Hayes publicly shill$ZEC, stating on X that it had become the second-largest holding in his family fund, Maelstrom, and predicting that "$ZEC could rise to $10,000 – $20,000." The market reacted immediately, and the privacy narrative made a comeback.

The Winklevoss brothers founded Cypherpunk with the goal of acquiring 5% of the circulating supply of [product name - '2024111120231']. They call [product name - '2024111120232'] "privacy insurance for the AI ​​era."

Institutional and narrative resonance – top venture capital firms such as ARK Invest and a16z stated in their reports that ZK is the security foundation for the AI ​​era.

This is not an isolated market trend, but a narrative revival—the return of privacy, the integration of AI, and the emergence of ZK.

The real key point is that the market has already cast its decisive vote for the "ZK revival" with the most genuine capital and the most fervent emotions. The question is, how should you place your bet? In my opinion, if $ZEC ignites the emotions, then $PROVE is the fuel that turns this fervor into infrastructure.

Zcash's Legacy vs. $PROVE The Future: Tesla and TSMC

To understand why $PROVE is a better beta, we must first understand its fundamental difference from Zcash. I've seen one of the most brilliant analogies:

If $ZEC is the "Tesla of the privacy ZK track", then $PROVE is the "TSMC of the entire ZK industry".

Zcash ($ZEC) is a great pioneer, much like an early Tesla, demonstrating the amazing potential of ZK technology to the world with a revolutionary product (privacy transactions). But that's also its problem: it's a vertical application.

By buying the $ZEC, you're betting that this "privacy deal" model will be a huge success.

Its value capture is strictly limited to its own "privacy pool".

Succinct ($PROVE), on the other hand, is a completely different "chip foundry." It provides SP1 (a groundbreaking zkVM) and the Prover Network, allowing any developer to easily "equip" their applications with ZK proofs.

$PROVE is a horizontal infrastructure:

It doesn't gamble on which particular road it can win. It simply charges all the "electric vehicle manufacturers" a "chip fee".

In every chain, every rollup, and every AI proof, there is a bill for $PROVE.

Ultimate Beta: Why can $PROVE capture the entire track?

When the ZK narrative exploded, the rise in $ZEC stemmed from the breakthrough in the area of ​​"privacy." Meanwhile, the value of $PROVE comes from the comprehensive expansion of the entire ZK market.

Is L2 scaling exploding? Over 35 projects, including Polygon, Mantle, and Celo (with a total guaranteed value exceeding $4 billion), are using Succinct to generate ZK proofs. They need to pay fees to $PROVE.

Can AI be verified computationally? When AI models need to prove their innocence, they need to generate ZK proofs.

Are cross-chain bridges secure? Celestia and Avail use Succinct to secure their light client bridges. They require $PROVE.

Even... new privacy projects? They also need the infrastructure provided by $PROVE to generate proofs.

$PROVE captures the sum of value from all the successful players in the ZK sector. Its SaaS (Software as a Service) revenue model—stable, predictable, and highly "sticky"—makes it the most solid and imaginative value vehicle in this ZK revival.

As Zcash's rise ignited the privacy narrative, Succinct was already turning that sentiment into a structural value capture.

The value anchor of l $ZEC is: dependent on the volume of privacy transactions and the scale of Shielded Pool usage, with a single source of demand and large fluctuations.

The value anchor of l $PROVE is the computing power demand from the entire ZK ecosystem. It doesn't provide privacy for a single project, but rather provides the underlying engine for "verifiable computation" for all projects.

The comparison of market size is even more striking: the annualized staking yield of PoS networks exceeds $1 billion. ZK proofs offer more efficient and harder-to-replace "cryptographic security"—meaning that the market size of ZK proofs is approaching or even surpassing that of staking itself.

The more crucial difference lies in the business model:

l $ZEC Dependent on trading demand, highly volatile.

The model of l $PROVE is more like SaaS: long-term, predictable, and compound growth.

Once L2 systems like Polygon or Mantle integrate Succinct into their core stack, they create infrastructure dependencies and high conversion costs—they cannot disable the proof system, otherwise the entire network will shut down.

This stickiness means that $PROVE possesses the potential for a "continuous subscription fee" type of cash flow. As L2 transaction volume grows, this value will amplify exponentially.

ZK's fire has already illuminated the foundation.

Zcash was the one who ignited the flame—it showed the world the power of zero-knowledge proofs for the first time. But today, that flame has grown from a candlelight into a blazing fire that illuminates the entire crypto infrastructure.

What we are seeing is not just a resurgence of privacy coins, but the beginning of a new era of verifiable computing. Zcash proved that "ZK can do it"; while Succinct ($PROVE) proved that "ZK can scale, be sustainable, and make money".

When the crypto narrative shifts back to hard questions like "real-world assets on-chain," "AI-verifiable computation," and "cross-chain security," emotions will fluctuate, but infrastructure will always get the last piece of the pie.

In this great migration from "trust" to "proof", $ZEC is the starting point of the story, while $PROVE is the main storyline.

It's not about worshipping anyone, but about understanding the trend. When the flames of ZK have already reached the foundation, holding $PROVE means you've already secured your position in the future structure.