Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler have filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Zcash exchange-traded fund. If approved, the fund would hold ZEC directly, track its price, and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK with a 0.25% sponsor fee.
The filing marks the twins' return to crypto ETFs after their earlier Bitcoin ETF attempt in 2013. Their Gemini exchange would serve as custodian, holding the trust's ZEC in cold storage. Winklevoss Capital Fund has indicated a non-binding interest in buying up to $100 million of shares. Cypherpunk Technologies, a Winklevoss-backed Zcash treasury company, would act as Zcash Ecosystem Partner, advising on protocol matters and coinholder voting.
The move comes during a Zcash resurgence. Grayscale recently converted its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF in August, and 21Shares listed Europe's first Zcash exchange-traded product. The filing highlights ZEC's extreme volatility and privacy coin risks, including this year's soundness bug in the Orchard shielded pool that briefly knocked ZEC down roughly 50% before the Ironwood upgrade patched it.
Zcash has surged more than 2,000% over the last year. The SEC must still approve the filing before trading can begin.
