Once again, large whales are making moves. In the past 5 hours, Zcash (ZEC), a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has been heavily bought by whales, causing a short-term surge of 5.3% and pushing the price to $469. In the current market environment, such performance is quite rare.

On-chain data shows signs of activity—multiple large addresses have accumulated over 120,000 ZEC at low levels, with a total value of approximately $570 million. Signals like this from institutional funds are usually not to be taken lightly, indicating that they still recognize the value of ZEC.

Why now? This is closely related to the overall rebound of the privacy coin sector. Recently, there have been signs of loosening global regulations, with some regions beginning to establish compliance frameworks for privacy coins. The previous market feeling of "regulatory risk hanging overhead" has eased. Meanwhile, mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are experiencing volatility, prompting funds to rotate into mid- and small-cap coins with distinctive features, and privacy coins with technological moat naturally become new allocation targets.

Sector linkage is also evident. The recent rise of ZEC has driven privacy coins like Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) higher, with the entire sector gaining over 2%. However, risks should also be acknowledged—ZEC's trading volume hasn't significantly increased, and the $469 level might face selling pressure. Moving forward, it remains to be seen whether whales will continue to flow funds in and whether the privacy coin ecosystem's applications can keep pace.