A trader who once strung together 26 winning trades in a row, posting an 89% win rate across 47 positions and more than $9 million in career profits, is finding out what happens when a winning streak meets Zcash's current run. According to on-chain tracker Lookonchain, the trader is short 12,285 ZEC — a position worth roughly $18.31 million — and is now sitting on a $7.66 million unrealized loss. Their liquidation price is $1,550.66, a level ZEC has already brushed against overnight before pulling back, meaning the position is one more leg higher away from being forcibly closed.
The short is a case study in how quickly a privacy-coin rally can punish even a trader with a strong long-run track record. ZEC has been one of the year's standout movers — part of a broader 213% surge in privacy coins this year that has outrun every other crypto sector — and the pace of the past few sessions has been enough to wipe out profits built over dozens of prior trades in a matter of days. This isn't the only large short standing against the move either: a separate trader who made $27 million on TRUMP has opened a $6.49 million short against the same rally.
New wallets keep pulling ZEC off exchanges
The short squeeze is being fed by a steady stream of exchange withdrawals from freshly created addresses, a pattern that typically signals accumulation rather than short-term trading. Over the past two days, wallet t1UcyM withdrew 15,860 ZEC (about $22.69 million) from Binance in a single day. Wallet t1fXjw pulled 7,081 ZEC (roughly $10.29 million) across multiple exchanges over the same 48-hour window. A third address, t1YLeD, withdrew 5,818 ZEC (about $8.45 million) from exchanges today, while a fourth, t1gxP4, took 3,534 ZEC (around $4.72 million) off Binance. In each case, the funds moved straight into newly created wallets rather than back to known trading desks — the kind of behavior that reads as conviction buying, not arbitrage.
Not every large holder is adding, though. One whale who opened a 10,160 ZEC long position on OKX around August 20, when the token traded near $630, closed the entire position today at roughly $1,458 — banking about $8.29 million in profit on a trade held for just under a month. The exit shows some of the market's earliest movers are now comfortable taking money off the table even as newer wallets keep buying, a split that's common in the later, more volatile stages of a fast-moving rally — the same dynamic seen in a separate whale's $41.56 million ZEC purchase over six days even as the token cools from its intraday highs.
Related: ZEC's Surge to $1,200 Leaves Short Sellers Nursing $30M in Losses
Price still up double digits despite the pullback
ZEC briefly broke above $1,500 overnight before easing back to around $1,470, still leaving the token up more than 10% on the day. The overnight spike and retreat is exactly the kind of move that puts pressure on leveraged short positions sized against a lower liquidation price: a wick above $1,550, even briefly, would have been enough to force the 89%-win-rate trader's position closed at a loss regardless of where price settles afterward. With fresh wallets still pulling supply off exchanges and at least one large short sitting deep underwater, the token's next big move looks likely to be driven as much by positioning as by fresh news.
FAQ
Why are new wallets withdrawing so much ZEC from exchanges right now?
Large, coordinated withdrawals into freshly created addresses are typically read by on-chain analysts as accumulation — holders moving coins into cold storage rather than preparing to sell, which reduces the exchange-side supply available to short sellers who need to buy back their positions.
What happens if ZEC trades back above $1,550.66?
That's the liquidation price on the 12,285 ZEC short currently down $7.66 million; a sustained move above it would force the position to close, potentially adding further buy pressure as the short is covered.
Is every large ZEC holder still bullish?
No — the whale who closed a 10,160 ZEC long for an $8.29 million profit today shows some early buyers are locking in gains even as new wallets continue accumulating, a common split during fast, volatile rallies.
