The proposed fund, ticker WINK, would hold ZEC directly with Gemini as custodian. It is the third U.S. spot Zcash effort, and a Winklevoss fund has signaled interest in buying up to $100 million of shares.
Crypto · FinancialMarkets.com · October 6, 2026 · Tickers: ZEC, COIN, GLXY
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss first filed for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund in 2013. On Tuesday they filed for one built on Zcash, a cryptocurrency designed to let users shield transaction details.
Winklevoss Asset Services, a newly formed sponsor owned by a Winklevoss holding company, filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the Winklevoss Zcash ETF. It would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK and hold ZEC tokens directly. Filing a registration statement starts the review process; it does not mean the fund has been approved or will launch.
The terms
The sponsor fee would be 0.25% a year, covering the fund's ordinary expenses. Gemini Trust Company, the Winklevoss-founded crypto firm, would act as custodian. CSC Delaware Trust Company would be trustee. A firm called Cypherpunk Technologies would serve as a "Zcash ecosystem partner," advising on protocol matters and on how the fund responds when ZEC holders are polled on network decisions.
Winklevoss Capital Fund has indicated nonbinding interest in buying up to $100 million of the ETF's shares.
The relationships
The structure puts several Winklevoss-linked entities around the same product. The sponsor, the custodian and the potential seed investor all connect to the twins, and Cypherpunk is a ZEC holder backed by them. Shared ownership can lower costs and speed decisions. It also concentrates counterparty and governance risk, a point investors may weigh against the low fee.
The competition
Two other firms have moved first. Grayscale's Zcash product, ZCSH, began trading in August, and Bitwise has filed for its own. The 0.25% fee is a direct bid for cost-conscious buyers in a small but growing category.
Zcash also poses a surveillance question that bitcoin and ether funds did not. Its shielded transactions can conceal transaction details, which complicates the market-surveillance arrangements that spot crypto funds have relied on. The way the SEC handles that issue for a privacy coin will shape how quickly any of the three products can scale.
The token
ZEC traded near $1,368 on Tuesday afternoon, up about 2.4% from the start of the day. The rise began before the filing became public, and Treasury withdrew a proposal targeting crypto mixers the same day, so the move cannot be attributed to the ETF filing alone.
What the filing could mean
One interpretation is that a deep-pocketed sponsor with its own ZEC exposure validates institutional demand for privacy assets. Another is that this is a third filing in a niche category with no approval timeline. A third focuses on the related-party structure and the concentration of roles in one family's companies.
The SEC's response
Comments or amendments from the SEC will show how the agency treats shielded transactions in a fund. Flows into Grayscale's existing product, and whether its fee changes, will show how much competitive pressure a 0.25% entrant creates before it ever trades.