Analysis
Winklevoss Asset Services filed an S-1 with the SEC for a spot Zcash ETF that would trade under ticker WINK, according to the filing. The trust would hold ZEC directly, with Gemini Trust Company — an affiliate of the Winklevoss-controlled sponsor — acting as custodian of the fund's private keys. Pulse previously covered Zcash's run to an eight-year high on ETF speculation; this filing is the formal step that speculation was pricing in.
The sponsor entity, Winklevoss Asset Services, LLC, was formed on Oct. 1, 2026 specifically for this filing, wholly owned by Winklevoss Asset Services Holdings. The fund would charge an annual unified fee of 0.25% of ZEC holdings, covering most operating expenses, with shares created and redeemed in blocks ('Baskets') by Authorized Participants depositing or withdrawing ZEC or cash — the same creation/redemption mechanism spot bitcoin ETFs have used since their 2024 launch.
“1, 2026 specifically for this filing, wholly owned by Winklevoss Asset Services Holdings.”
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have run this playbook before: their firm pushed one of the earliest bitcoin ETF proposals years before the SEC approved the category, and Gemini's custody arm gives them an in-house infrastructure advantage other ETF sponsors have had to build or buy. Whether a Zcash ETF clears the same regulatory bar as bitcoin and ether products will likely hinge on how regulators treat Zcash's privacy features — Zcash's shielded-transaction option is a meaningfully different risk profile than bitcoin's fully transparent ledger, and that distinction is exactly the kind of thing that can slow an SEC review regardless of how clean the fund structure itself looks.