ZEC’s sudden pop could be driven by the same kind of activity we’ve seen around privacy coins before—potentially including money laundering. Privacy coins are often associated with illicit flows, so this surge may be tied to stolen funds being cycled through the market. It’s also what can happen when a project becomes “open season” once the original team steps back: anyone—including scammers—can take advantage, which can create bigger problems later.

What stands out is that most privacy coins aren’t moving much, yet ZEC is. The exact reason isn’t clear, but laundering or theft-related buying is one plausible explanation. If that’s what’s behind the pump, I don’t expect it to last long—maybe 1–3 days—before momentum fades and the price dumps. And generally, you don’t see someone accumulate 30%+ of a coin in a single day just to push price up unless there’s a non-organic motive.