Why ZEC and NEAR are winning crypto’s alternative asset bid in 2026

Zcash and NEAR Protocol have emerged as two of crypto’s strongest alternative trades in 2026, a move Bankless co-founder David Hoffman believes is being driven by investors moving some capital away from Bitcoin and Ethereum toward assets with stronger return narratives. Summary David Hoffman says ZEC has captured the Bitcoin bid as some BTC holders allocate capital to the smaller privacy asset. NEAR has emerged as a smart contract alternative as traders look beyond established assets such as ETH and SOL. Hoffman says the trend could leave Bitcoin and Ethereum competing for capital as investors seek higher returns from smaller crypto assets. Hoffman said in a Sept. 23 post that ZEC has become what he calls the latest winner of the “Bitcoin Bid,” while NEAR has captured a similar position among smart contract platforms. His argument centers on the size of Bitcoin’s existing pool of wealth. Bitcoin carries a market capitalization of roughly $1.7 trillion, while Zcash remains a fraction of that size even after its rally. Hoffman said only a small portion of Bitcoin holders would need to allocate some of their capital to ZEC for the smaller asset to experience substantial buying pressure. Zcash’s market capitalization has climbed to roughly $26 billion after starting from a much smaller base, according to figures cited by Hoffman. The move has coincided with growing interest in privacy, quantum computing risks and regulated access to the asset. You might also like: 21Shares launches Zcash ETP after U.S. ETF debut The privacy coin market has grown nearly fivefold over the past year, according to a Sept. 22 report from 21Shares cited by crypto.news. The sector expanded from $6.2 billion to roughly $30 billion, while CoinGecko valued the category near $36.9 billion at the time. Hoffman sees ZEC drawing from Bitcoin’s pool of capital Hoffman compared the current ZEC trade with Ethereum’s run in 2021, when ETH moved from a market capitalization near $12 billion at its cycle bottom to roughly $554 billion at its peak. His thesis does not suggest that Bitcoin holders are abandoning BTC altogether. Instead, Hoffman believes enough holders may be allocating a small part of their portfolios to ZEC as a hedge or complementary position. Zcash gives that group several narratives to work with. The network shares Bitcoin’s fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins while offering optional transaction privacy through shielded addresses. Concerns over the long term effect of quantum computing on existing cryptographic systems have provided another part of the investment case cited by ZEC supporters. Institutional access has changed as well. Grayscale converted its Zcash Trust into the ZCSH spot ETF on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25, launching with roughly $304 million in assets under management.