The divergence has been so pronounced that Zcash briefly surpassed Cardano by market capitalization, pushing ZEC to become the 11th-largest cryptocurrency on May 10—an inflection point that has led at least one market expert to suggest ZEC could ultimately flip ADA in that key ranking.
Why Zcash Is Catching Investors’ EyeThat kind of accumulation is not limited to one firm. Cypherpunk Technologies has also accumulated an additional 295,000 Zcash tokens, representing about 1.7% of the coin’s circulating supply.
Carchidi noted that the network’s privacy usage appears to be rising in parallel with price. Approximately 30% of Zcash’s circulating supply is now held in shielded addresses.
Importantly, this share has nearly quadrupled over the past two years, a trend Carchidi says strongly suggests that adoption and usage are increasing alongside ZEC’s market momentum.
Cardano Lacks Clear Path To BreakoutAt the same time, the expert argues the comparison with Cardano is different in almost every way besides market cap. Carchidi pointed out that Cardano is built as a smart-contract blockchain and is designed to compete in decentralized finance (DeFi), yet its traction has been comparatively limited.
Carchidi’s view is that Cardano is in what he described as an “awkward valley.” He argues it is too slow and relatively expensive to compete effectively with high-speed, high-throughput chains such as Solana (SOL).
At the same time, even though Cardano is cheaper than the blockchain it was originally created to beat—Ethereum (ETH)—it remains slightly slower and does not have nearly the same ecosystem scale.
He claims Zcash has such a narrative, while Cardano’s story has largely been “wait for better times” for the past several years—without enough clarity on how the better times will be delivered by what the developers are building right now.
What Could Drive ADA Higher?Even so, he doubts that investors would be eager to hold Cardano through an ETF if there is not a strong investment thesis supporting purchases at current levels.
Ultimately, Carchidi’s conclusion is direct. He argues that, given the lack of clear catalysts and the uncertainty around what would drive recovery, it may make sense to sell Cardano. Zcash, on the other hand, could be attractive if a portfolio needs exposure to privacy coins or scarce stores of value.
At the time of writing, ZEC was trading at around $545, having recorded additional gains of 63% in just two weeks. During the same period, ADA recorded gains of 9%, trading at around $0.27.
Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
