Winklevoss Asset Services filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6, 2026, for a spot Zcash exchange-traded fund to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK. The proposed fund would charge a 0.25% annual sponsor fee — one-tenth of the 2.50%...
"We feel strongly that Zcash could become a meaningful percentage of Bitcoin's market capitalization — just on the merits of it being a privacy hedge or insurance policy to Bitcoin's transparency alone." — Tyler Winklevoss, Co-Founder, Gemini
Winklevoss Asset Services filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6, 2026, for a spot Zcash exchange-traded fund to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK. The proposed fund would charge a 0.25% annual sponsor fee — one-tenth of the 2.50% levied by Grayscale's existing Zcash ETF (ZCSH), which launched on NYSE Arca on August 25 and has accumulated approximately $751 million in assets under management after peaking near $979 million in September.
The filing marks the third U.S. issuer to pursue a spot ZEC fund, after Grayscale and Bitwise. Winklevoss Capital Fund has indicated nonbinding interest in purchasing up to $100 million of shares at launch. Gemini Trust Company, the Winklevoss twins' crypto exchange, would serve as custodian. The filing arrives 13 years after Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss submitted the first-ever U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF application in July 2013 — a bid the SEC took four years to reject and which was ultimately vindicated when spot Bitcoin ETFs received approval in January 2024.
ZEC traded at approximately $1,366 on October 6, representing a 2,496% year-to-date gain that has lifted the token from 82nd to 7th by market capitalization — a $23.1 billion valuation. The privacy coin sector is the only major crypto category still trading above its 2025 highs.
The S-1 describes a cash-create and cash-redeem model for authorized participants. Unlike in-kind ETF structures where market makers deliver the underlying asset directly, authorized participants in the proposed WINK fund hand over dollars. The trust itself handles acquiring ZEC on the open market. This structure simplifies regulatory compliance and mirrors the mechanism used by most U.S. spot crypto ETFs.
Key terms from the filing:
The trust would hold physical ZEC. Shares would track the net asset value of the trust's ZEC holdings minus fees. The filing does not specify an expected launch date; SEC review of the S-1 must precede any listing, and a separate 19b-4 filing from Nasdaq would be required to authorize the listing.
The fee differential between WINK's proposed 0.25% and Grayscale's ZCSH at 2.50% is the most immediately notable feature of the filing. On a $100,000 investment held for one year, WINK would charge $250; ZCSH would charge $2,500.
This 10x gap mirrors the fee dynamics that shaped the spot Bitcoin ETF market after January 2024. Grayscale's GBTC launched at a 1.50% fee — significantly above BlackRock's IBIT at 0.25% and Fidelity's FBTC at 0.25%. The result: GBTC experienced approximately $21 billion in net outflows during its first year as an ETF, even as the broader spot Bitcoin ETF category attracted record inflows. GBTC's AUM fell from over $28 billion to approximately $15 billion despite Bitcoin's price appreciation.
Whether the same dynamic will play out in the Zcash ETF market depends on several factors. Grayscale has first-mover advantage and $751 million in AUM. ZCSH converted from an existing trust (the Grayscale Zcash Trust), which means its investor base includes holders who purchased shares at a premium or discount to NAV in the pre-ETF structure. Some of those holders may be locked in or may prefer the liquidity of an established product.
However, the fee gap is large enough to matter for institutional allocators where basis-point-level cost comparisons drive fund selection. ETF fee competition has historically favored lower-cost providers once product parity is established.
The Winklevoss filing is not an isolated product launch. It sits within a broader vertical integration strategy for Zcash exposure:
Cypherpunk Technologies (CYPH) — a publicly traded company — serves as the trust's designated Zcash ecosystem partner. Cypherpunk launched a Zcash mining fleet in August 2026 through a $33.33 million equity transaction with Winklevoss Capital. The deal delivered approximately 4.2 GSol/s of Equihash hashrate deployed across U.S. facilities, representing roughly 18% of the total Zcash network hashrate, making it the network's largest active mining operation.
Cypherpunk holds 323,394 ZEC as of its last disclosure, approximately 1.92% of circulating supply. The company has stated its target is 5% of ZEC's total supply. At current prices of $1,366 per ZEC, the existing treasury is worth approximately $441.7 million.
Gemini — the Winklevoss-owned exchange — would custody all ZEC held by the trust, adding a fee-bearing institutional custody revenue stream.
The structure means the Winklevoss family entity participates in Zcash mining (via Cypherpunk's hashrate), Zcash accumulation (via Cypherpunk's treasury), Zcash custody (via Gemini), and Zcash fund management (via Winklevoss Asset Services). This vertical integration is atypical in the ETF industry. It bears scrutiny for potential conflicts of interest but also signals long-term commitment to the asset class.
Grayscale's ZCSH launched on NYSE Arca on August 25, 2026, converting from the existing Grayscale Zcash Trust. It became the first U.S.-listed spot exchange-traded fund offering direct exposure to ZEC.
Performance metrics since launch:
| Metric | Value | |--------|-------| | Launch date | August 25, 2026 | | Launch AUM | ~$260M (387,000 ZEC) | | AUM at 3 days post-launch | ~$313M | | AUM at 2 weeks post-launch | ~$500M | | Peak AUM (September 2026) | ~$979M | | Current AUM (early October) | ~$751M | | Net inflows (30-day trailing) | ~$306M | | Largest weekly outflow | $93.56M | | Expense ratio | 2.50% |
ZEC crossed $1,000 approximately two weeks after ZCSH launched, according to Yahoo Finance. The ETF launch served as a catalyst for broader institutional interest, though attribution is complicated by concurrent factors including the NU7 upgrade timeline and increasing shielded transaction adoption.
The September peak-to-current decline of approximately $228 million in AUM reflects a combination of ZEC price pullback and fund outflows. Grayscale's high fee structure may accelerate outflows if a lower-cost competitor achieves listing — a pattern observed in the Bitcoin ETF market.
ZEC's 2026 price performance is the most extreme among major-cap cryptocurrencies. From approximately $52 at the start of 2026, ZEC reached $1,366 by October 6 — a 2,496% gain. The token moved from 82nd to 7th largest by market capitalization.
For context: only 25 of the 200 largest crypto assets by market cap are positive year-to-date. The median asset remains down 55%, according to KuCoin research. Zcash is a statistical outlier.
Privacy adoption metrics:
The privacy adoption increase is structural rather than speculative. Wallets defaulting to shielded mode removes friction from privacy usage, converting an opt-in feature into the default behavior.
Key drivers of the 2026 rally, per market analysis:
Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) went live on the Zcash public test network on October 6, 2026 — two days ahead of schedule. The upgrade contains three primary changes:
The Zcash development team plans to make a final decision on mainnet activation on October 20, with a current target date of November 5 for mainnet deployment. If activated, the block time reduction would bring Zcash closer to competitive parity with faster settlement networks while maintaining its privacy features.
The Winklevoss Zcash ETF filing enters a maturing U.S. crypto ETF market. As of early October 2026:
Zcash's total ETF AUM of approximately $751 million represents less than 1% of the combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF market. The question is whether a second, lower-cost entrant expands the addressable market or simply redistributes existing flows — and whether the fee differential is large enough to trigger the same outflow dynamics seen in Bitcoin ETFs.
The Winklevoss Zcash ETF filing introduces fee competition to a market currently served by a single product charging 2.50% annually. The 0.25% proposed fee, combined with the Winklevoss family's vertical integration across mining, treasury accumulation, custody, and fund management, represents a concentrated bet that Zcash can sustain institutional demand beyond the initial ETF launch.
The filing's timing — coinciding with ZEC's 2,496% year-to-date rally, the NU7 testnet launch, and rising shielded transaction adoption — positions WINK to capture flows from cost-sensitive institutional allocators if and when SEC review concludes. Grayscale's experience with GBTC outflows after lower-cost Bitcoin ETFs launched suggests the fee differential will matter, though the Zcash ETF market is significantly smaller and less liquid than Bitcoin's.
The SEC has not indicated a timeline for reviewing the S-1. A 19b-4 filing from Nasdaq must also be approved before trading can begin. Whether the commission will approve a second spot privacy-coin ETF — and whether Zcash's current valuation can sustain institutional interest through what could be a multi-month review process — remain open questions.