Grayscale files again to turn its Zcash Trust into an ETF, at a 2.5% fee

Grayscale filed a fresh amendment to its registration statement on Friday for a product that would convert the firm's existing Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund, according to The Block, which cited the filing. The amended document renames the vehicle "The Zcash ETF," sets the sponsor fee at 2.5% a year, and lists NYSE Arca as the venue under the ticker ZCH.

The structure named in the filing: Bank of New York Mellon as transfer agent, Coinbase Custody Trust Company as custodian. Shares would be issued on a continuous basis with an indeterminate number registered — meaning no fixed offering size — and sold, in the filing's terms as quoted by The Block, at varying prices referencing the price of ZEC and the trading price of the shares on NYSE Arca at the time of each sale.

The seeding question is the more interesting one. In a fourth amended filing earlier in the week, Grayscale disclosed that a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group was in discussions to potentially contribute roughly 200,000 ZEC to the fund, per The Block. DCG is Grayscale's parent. That is a related-party contribution, it is not agreed, and its dollar value wasn't disclosed.

The existing Zcash Trust has operated since 2017 and held over $260 million in assets under management as of Friday, per The Block. Zcash, launched in 2016 and built around shielded transactions, is the 12th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on The Block's data page. The SEC has not approved anything here.

Key facts

• Amended filing dated Friday, Aug. 21, 2026; trust to be renamed The Zcash ETF — The Block, citing the filing
• Sponsor fee: 2.5% annually — The Block, citing the filing
• Listing venue NYSE Arca, ticker ZCH; BNY Mellon transfer agent, Coinbase Custody custodian — same filing
• Fourth amendment, earlier in the week: a DCG subsidiary "in discussions" to contribute ~200,000 ZEC — The Block
• Grayscale Zcash Trust: operating since 2017, $260M+ AUM as of Friday — The Block
• Grayscale has launched more than a dozen crypto ETFs, including bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and XRP — The Block

The real-world read

An S-1 amendment is not an approval, and this is at least the fifth. "Moves closer" is a filing cadence, not a regulatory signal; nothing in the filing commits the SEC to anything, and no effectiveness date has been set.

The 2.5% sponsor fee is the number to sit with. It is the highest-profile disclosure in the amendment and it is Grayscale's own choice — the firm's conversion playbook has historically meant launching expensive and repricing under competitive pressure, and there is no announced fee waiver here.

The 200,000 ZEC is parent-company money seeding a subsidiary's fund, disclosed as a discussion rather than a commitment. Treat it as intent, not inventory.

One housekeeping note on provenance: The Block discloses that Foresight Ventures is its majority investor and that Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight. The reporting here is straight and the filing is a public primary document, but the disclosure belongs in view.

Opinion, and whose

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart, posting on X on Friday: "Looks like they're getting closer and closer to converting this thing into an ETF." That is an analyst's read of filing momentum, not a prediction of approval or a timeline.

Sources

• The Block, Sarah Wynn (Aug. 21, 2026) — the amended filing's contents: renaming, 2.5% fee, ZCH ticker, NYSE Arca, BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody roles, the quoted issuance language, the prior amendment's 200,000 ZEC disclosure, trust AUM and vintage, and the Seyffart quote. The Block discloses Foresight Ventures as majority investor, with Bitget an anchor LP of Foresight.
• Not used: promotional units on the same page — an LMAX Digital ad unit, a Polymarket-branded item, and a Bitcoin.com Wallet TRON-integration release — are marketing, not reporting.

Grayscale's SEC filing is the primary document behind every figure above; it was not independently reviewed here beyond The Block's account of it.

Not financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.