Even with a 1 million sponsorship from Grayscale, it still couldn't be propped up—how did ZEC, once touted as the darling, collapse again?

Grayscale's $1 million Zcash ecosystem sponsorship, funded from fees on its ZCSH ETF and paying four nonprofits $100,000 each, failed to lift the token: ZEC fell 11.3% to about $1,043 on November 10 and is down nearly 20% over 30 days. The drop exposes how leveraged the rally had become, with roughly $2.3 billion in ZEC perpetual futures open interest letting large holders sell the news into retail longs. Grayscale's commitment is voluntary and revocable, and the first $400,000 disbursed is negligible against Zcash's market cap, while its August NYSE Arca ETF listing has drawn little sustained institutional allocation. Sentiment was also dented by a privacy-pool bug about three months before the ETF launch that halved the price, repaired in July but still weighing on conservative capital. Watch whether open interest unwinds further and whether ETF inflows broaden beyond promotional spending.