Zcash co-founder backs Shielded Bitcoin and keeps $5,000 year-end target

Zcash co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson backed Shielded Bitcoin and said his $5,000 year-end ZEC target remains in play. Alloc Init published the proposal on September 24. Misha Komarov, Aleksei Moskvin, and Clara Shikhelma wrote it. The design combines encrypted notes, public nullifiers, and zero-knowledge proofs. Nullifiers prevent hidden coins from being spent twice. The design needs no soft fork, BitVM, or consensus change. It relies on Bitcoin PIPEs, a tool built on witness encryption. The team says all protocol data remains on Bitcoin itself. Standard Bitcoin payments remain visible on-chain and can reveal sensitive business payment details. Ben-Sasson said he has not read the paper yet. He welcomed its direction and hopes zero-knowledge privacy and scaling reach Bitcoin's base layer. Ben-Sasson predicted on September 9 that ZEC would trade above $1,200 by September 25. That prediction held. ZEC trades at $1,545.89, up 1.44% in 24 hours. ZEC has gained nearly 291% over 90 days. ZEC ranks ninth by market capitalization. Reaching $5,000 would require a gain of roughly 223%. Ben-Sasson said more large holders now ask him what drives the rally. He said he has no answer and asked followers for theirs. Zcash spot funds received $98.2 million in one week through September 18. That was the largest inflow among 14 crypto products. Ledger added private Zcash balances to its desktop app. One position betting against ZEC closed at a $10.68 million loss. Ben-Sasson described his target as a personal bet rather than investment advice. He said demand for exchange-traded funds through December could determine whether ZEC approaches $5,000.