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Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss used the stage at Token2049 in Singapore to promote a proposed spot Zcash ETF. The fund comes from Winklevoss Asset Services, a newly formed issuer.
The pitch arrives one day after the paperwork. A preliminary S-1 registration statement went to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on October 6, 2026.
An S-1 is the formal document a company files to register securities with the SEC. A preliminary one means the process has started, not finished.
What the Winklevoss Zcash ETF would look like
The proposed fund would list on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK.
It is structured as a spot product. The fund would hold ZEC, the native token of the Zcash network, directly rather than tracking it through futures or other derivatives. Investors would get price exposure to the token without managing wallets or private keys themselves.
The annual sponsor fee is set at 0.25%.
That fee matters because a rival already exists. Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, which trades as ZCSH, charges 2.5%, ten times as much.
For a quick sense of scale, consider a hypothetical $10,000 position held for a year. At 0.25%, the fee works out to $25. At 2.5%, it comes to $250.
Custody would stay in the family. Gemini Trust Company, an affiliate of the Winklevoss twins, is slated to hold the fund’s ZEC in cold storage.
The filing also names Cypherpunk Technologies as the Zcash Ecosystem Partner. That role involves assisting with information about the protocol and with coinholder voting.
The Winklevoss Capital Fund has expressed non-binding interest in buying up to $100 million of shares after the ETF launches.
Privacy takes center stage in Singapore
Tyler Winklevoss spoke at the conference on October 7. His theme was the growing value of privacy in digital assets.
Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, built for users who would rather not broadcast every transaction to the world.
The Winklevoss connection to the asset is not new. The twins were early adopters of Zcash. Gemini was the first licensed exchange to offer ZEC trading.
The competitive backdrop
The Winklevoss proposal is the third US filing for a spot Zcash ETF.
Grayscale got there first. Its ZCSH product launched on August 25, 2026. After its first month, it had drawn over $233 million in inflows and held nearly $890 million in assets.
ZEC itself has performed strongly in 2026, carried by rising interest in privacy-focused assets.
What this means for investors and the market
The most direct implication is a potential fee war. Grayscale’s ZCSH has the head start and the assets. The Winklevoss fund, if approved, would counter with a far cheaper sponsor fee.
The Winklevoss setup carries a particular kind of concentration. The sponsor, the custodian and a potential anchor buyer all sit within the twins’ orbit.
The $100 million expression of interest is meaningful as a signal. It is not a guarantee of day-one demand. Non-binding interest can change, and the fund still needs to clear the SEC before any shares trade.
A preliminary S-1 is an opening move. Amendments, questions from regulators and exchange listing steps typically follow before launch.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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