21shares launches Europe’s first Zcash ETP with 2.5% annual fee

21shares has launched Europe’s first Zcash exchange-traded product, listing the physically backed ZCASH ETP on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam with a 2.5% annual fee. The debut lands as ZEC trades above $1,600 and pushes past $27 billion in market capitalization, giving institutional allocators a regulated European wrapper just as Grayscale’s rival US spot ETF prepares a share split.

• 21shares’ Zcash ETP (ticker ZCASH, ISIN CH1608218801) carries a 2.5% annual fee and trades in euros in Paris, dollars in Amsterdam.
• ZEC hit about $1,629 on Wednesday, September 23, up roughly 7% in 24 hours and clearing its September 18 year-to-date high of $1,590.
• Grayscale’s ZCSH, the first US spot Zcash ETF, executes a 3-for-1 split with a September 28 record date and post-split trading from September 30.

• 2.5% annual fee on both new 21shares ETPs, ZCASH and ETHFI
• $27.6B ZEC market cap on Sept 23, ninth among all crypto assets
• 30% of all ZEC ever mined now sitting in shielded pools, a network record

21shares confirmed the launch in a press release dated Tuesday, September 22, alongside a matching ether.fi ETP tracking the ETHFI token. Both products are physically backed, meaning the issuer holds the underlying tokens with third-party custodians rather than tracking price via derivatives.

21shares Prices Zcash Access at 2.5%, Matching Its Own ETHFI Launch

The ZCASH ETP and the ether.fi ETP trade under nearly identical terms: Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris listings, euro pricing in Paris, dollar pricing in Amsterdam, and the same 2.5% annual fee. 21shares is a subsidiary of FalconX, one of the largest digital asset prime brokers.

Physical backing removes the custody burden that keeps many institutional mandates out of direct token ownership. Investors buy the ETP through a standard brokerage account instead of managing private keys or exchange accounts.

Zcash offers something truly distinct by combining Bitcoin’s capped supply with optional privacy and future-proof cryptography.

Jasmin Muelhaupt, Director of Financial Product Development, 21shares

ZEC Clears $1,600 as Shielded Pool Balances Hit a Network Record

ZEC traded around $1,629 on Wednesday, September 23, up about 7% over the prior 24 hours and above the $1,590 year-to-date high it set on September 18. The token had pulled back to $1,429 before finding support above $1,440, then pushed to a market capitalization near $27.6 billion, the ninth largest among all crypto assets that day.

More than 30% of every ZEC ever created, roughly 4.9 million coins, now sits in the network’s shielded pools. That is the highest share the protocol has recorded, according to on-chain tracking data.

The privacy-plus-scarcity pitch echoes a broader institutional push to package niche crypto infrastructure into brokerage-friendly wrappers, a trend also visible in enterprise blockchain deals such as Chainlink’s recent bank payment and tokenization work. Rising shielded-pool participation gives 21shares a usage metric to point to beyond price, something ETP issuers increasingly lean on when marketing single-asset products to allocators.

Grayscale’s ZCSH Split Sets Up a Fee and Access Comparison

Grayscale’s ZCSH became the first US spot Zcash ETF when it launched on NYSE Arca on August 25, roughly four weeks before 21shares’ European debut.

The fund executes a 3-for-1 share split with a September 28 record date, trading on a post-split basis from September 30, and it logged a single-session inflow of $46.56 million earlier this month, its second-highest daily inflow since inception, pushing net assets close to $917 million.

Neither the release nor Cryptopolitan’s report discloses ZCSH’s expense ratio, so investors cannot yet weigh 21shares’ 2.5% fee against its only US counterpart on cost alone.

That structural gap matters for allocators comparing wrappers the way they might weigh growth metrics across onchain products, similar to how underwriter capital growth figures get scrutinized before capital commits. Until 21shares or a competitor discloses a side-by-side cost comparison, European buyers are paying for regulated access and custody, not necessarily a cheaper entry point than the US fund.

The CCS read. A 2.5% fee on a single-asset ETP is a premium price for regulatory convenience, not a signal about ZEC’s fundamentals. What the launch really tests is whether European wealth managers will pay up for privacy-asset exposure the way US allocators paid up for Grayscale’s early trust structures, before cheaper competitors inevitably arrive.

Grayscale’s ZCSH begins post-split trading on Wednesday, September 30, the next data point that will show whether the $46.56 million inflow spike marks sustained US demand or a one-off. 21shares has not disclosed volume or holdings for ZCASH since launch, leaving the size of European uptake, and any fee response from rival issuers, as the open question for the coming weeks.