DCG’s $100 Million Purchase Outweighs Every Other Investor in Grayscale’s Zcash ETF Combined

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• Grayscale’s Zcash ETF (ZCSH) reported more than $500 million in assets as of Sept. 8, two weeks after listing on NYSE Arca.
• DCG International Investments, an affiliate of the fund’s own sponsor, bought $100 million of ZCSH shares that same day by handing over 85,705 ZEC.
• That single purchase is larger than the more than $70 million Grayscale says came from every other investor combined since launch.

Grayscale’s Zcash ETF says it topped $500 million in assets on Sept. 8. The single largest contributor to that total was not an outside investor. It was DCG International Investments, a subsidiary of the fund sponsor’s own parent company, which bought $100 million of ZCSH shares that day by exchanging 85,705.33 ZEC for stock, according to a Form 8-K the fund filed with the SEC.

DCG International Investments is, by the filing’s own description, an affiliate of both Grayscale Investments, the ETF’s sponsor, and the fund itself. In plain terms, DCG’s corporate family bought into a product it also earns fees from managing. Grayscale said cumulative inflows from every other investor totaled more than $70 million in ZCSH’s first two weeks on NYSE Arca. DCG’s single trade was bigger than that combined total, and now accounts for roughly a fifth of the fund’s total reported assets.

Already flagged this in August

This was not a surprise. We reported on Aug. 20 that an SEC filing showed DCG was weighing a contribution of up to about 200,000 ZEC, worth roughly $110 million at the time, in exchange for ZCSH shares. The filing described those discussions as non-binding, with DCG free to contribute more, less or nothing at all. It ultimately contributed 85,705 ZEC, about 43% of the ceiling it had been weighing.

DCG has its own reason to want demand for ZEC to look strong. DCG’s Zcash-mining subsidiary, Fortitude Mining Holdings, has posted a loss in every period since 2024, including $14.3 million in 2024 and $12.6 million in 2025, according to regulatory disclosures the unit was compelled to make, even as ZEC’s price has risen roughly tenfold over the past year.

ZCSH’s next few net-flow reports will show whether outside demand for a listed Zcash fund holds up on its own, or whether the fund’s most reliable buyer so far has been its own parent company.