Based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap and market analysis, the price $ZEN is currently around $9.22 USD (down 3.95% in the last 24 hours, and still far below the ATH of $168.15 from May 2021—down 94.5% overall). Despite optimistic predictions for 2025 (such as a rise of 13.91% to $19.79 by the end of the year), the price is indeed stuck at a low level due to a combination of macro, technical factors, and the project itself. This is not speculation, but based on real-time market trends.
Horizen Project Factor: Transition and External Risks
Migration to Base (July 2025): ZEN will transition to ERC-20 on Layer 2 Ethereum (Coinbase), good for DeFi integration (such as listing on Aerodrome/Uniswap with a volume of $566 million last November). However, this triggers short-term volatility (-13% post-migration) due to liquidity disruption and mandatory node upgrades. Legacy chain shutdown creates FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in the community, and dependence on Base makes ZEN fluctuate with Ethereum.
Privacy Regulation: The EU plans to ban anonymity coins starting in 2027, plus 73+ exchanges will delist ZEN in 2025—this puts pressure on demand. Although Horizen claims "regulated privacy" using optional zk-SNARKs, investors are still hesitant, especially with competition from Zcash/Aztec that is more adaptive.
Slow Adoption: Switch to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) via ZenIP 42407 (launch Horizen 2.0 H1 2025) and developer fund of $1 million ZEN is good for the future, but the staking program is delayed and TVL has not reached the target. Binance removed monitoring tags (stable signal), but it is not enough to push prices up significantly. Grayscale Horizen Trust is reviewing support by the end of 2025—if negative, it could trigger large sell-offs.
