News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News, June 9th — BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated in his latest article "Reality Test" that if oil prices continue to rise due to the US-Iran conflict, it could trigger a collapse of the AI stock bubble and drag the entire crypto market down.Hayes said that if traffic restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz persist deep into the second quarter, spot prices for hydrocarbons and other key commodities could rise in the third quarter. If oil prices continue to climb and inflationary pressures impact the US midterm elections, Trump might pivot to a tough stance targeting data center construction, AI regulation, and taxation. Hayes believes the market could anticipate Trump limiting AI capital expenditure and taxing AI companies, thereby triggering the burst of the AI stock bubble.Hayes also noted that since November 2022, the scale of AI-related debt issuance has been approximately $1.5 trillion, and US M2 has increased by roughly the same amount during the same period. He believes the three factors that could pop the AI bubble include rising energy costs, the market's inability to absorb three major AI-related IPOs — namely SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI — and Trump's shift to opposing AI. In terms of portfolio, Hayes stated that Maelstrom's stock portfolio holds significant positions in US-listed energy producers; he has sold AI-related stocks and offloaded non-core crypto assets, having dumped HYPE, NEAR, and WLD last week, as well as selling ZEC due to the Orchard Pool vulnerability. He still holds Bitcoin and ETH and will execute tactical short trades via derivatives.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that as U.S. stocks continue to rise, AI stocks attract significant capital, and the regulatory outlook for the U.S. "Clarity Act" remains uncertain, crypto assets are transitioning from past momentum trading to longer-term fundamental "contrarian bets."Hougan pointed out that against the backdrop of the Nasdaq 100 index rising 43% year-over-year and AI concepts dominating market attention, the appeal of allocating crypto assets for institutional investors has diminished. However, this does not mean the crypto industry is disappearing; rather, the investment logic is changing, requiring a longer-term perspective and stronger fundamental judgment.He also noted that the current "crypto winter" differs from the past, as funds are no longer simply flowing into large-cap assets like Bitcoin but are beginning to reward projects with independent fundamental narratives. For instance, Hyperliquid, BNB, Zcash, and Stellar have all seen notable gains recently, indicating that the market is placing greater emphasis on the actual progress and differentiated logic of specific projects.
The Zcash Foundation released its Q1 2026 report, disclosing total liquid assets of approximately $36.7 million, including roughly $12.11 million in cash, 506,556 USDC, 85,412 ZEC (valued at ~$21.2 million), 41.8 BTC (valued at ~$2.85 million), and 12.02 ETH (valued at ~$25,000). The Zcash Foundation added that, although the first quarter of this year saw personnel changes within the Electric Coin Company’s development team and governance-related disputes, network operations remained unaffected, with transactions and block production continuing normally. On the regulatory front, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its investigation without taking any enforcement action, thereby resolving long-standing regulatory uncertainty.
Grayscale submitted the first application for a Zcash spot ETF on May 8.ZEC’s price once touched $600, pushing its market cap into the top 15 and surpassing Cardano. Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain noted that this move is driven by growing demand for privacy assets amid U.S. wealth tax legislative proposals. The SEC concluded its review of Zcash in January 2026 without taking enforcement action. Data shows that approximately 30% of ZEC’s supply is held in shielded addresses. Last week, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $268 million in outflows, with some capital rotating into privacy and AI infrastructure tokens.
According to Fortune, Foundry, a leading Bitcoin mining pool, officially launched a new mining pool for the privacy coin Zcash on April 13. Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry, stated that this move aims to address growing institutional demand for privacy coins. The pool has already attracted several institutional miners, and its output now accounts for nearly one-third of all newly minted Zcash globally. Zcash implements transaction privacy via zero-knowledge proof technology while supporting selective disclosure to meet regulatory compliance requirements—making it more appealing to institutions than its competitor Monero. Fueled by this news, Zcash’s price has surged over 75% in the past 30 days, with its current market capitalization standing at approximately $6.3 billion. Foundry currently controls about 31% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, making it the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool operator.