Invest1 publisher2 min readPublished
DCG supplied about two-thirds of the ZEC that Grayscale's ETF added since August
Grayscale's ZCSH holds 596,269 ZEC, roughly 3.52% of circulating supply, after in-kind creations lifted its coin count by 28.4%. Assets nearly tripled over the same weeks, and most of that came from ZEC's price.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Grayscale's ZCSH, listed on NYSE Arca, held 596,268.94 ZEC as of September 18, 2026, roughly 3.52% of every Zcash coin in circulation, less than a month after converting from a legacy trust.
- All of the 28% growth in the fund's holdings came from in-kind creations, in which authorized participants hand over ZEC and receive newly issued ETF shares, with no open-market buying by Grayscale.
- DCG International Investments Ltd. deposited approximately 85,705 ZEC on September 8, worth around $100 million at the time, the largest single contribution to the fund.
- Grayscale has scheduled a 3-for-1 forward share split for September 28, 2026 to lower the per-share price and, in its framing, improve accessibility for smaller investors.
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Why it matters
- cost At 2.5%, the fund collects about $22.4m a year on $895m of assets, and roughly $2.5m of that is Grayscale billing its own parent for custody of coins the parent already owned.
- exposure DCG's Zcash exposure now sits in NYSE Arca-listed shares, a form the group can sell in an order book on any trading day.
- contradiction The inflow totals cryptobriefing reports and the size of the DCG deposit do not sit comfortably together, so the split between family money and outside money in ZCSH is not yet pinned down.
Work backwards from the percentages and the fund opened on August 25 with roughly 464,385 coins [1] against about $304m of assets [10], which is about $655 a coin [10]. The midpoint of the $876m to $914m estimate for mid-September is $895m [8], and over 596,269 coins that implies roughly $1,501 [9]. Assets multiplied 2.94 times [11], units 1.28 times [2], and the ratio between them, about 2.29, is ZEC's price [12].
The unit increase itself is about 131,884 coins [2]. DCG International Investments, Grayscale's parent [6], put in approximately 85,705 of them on September 8 for around $100m [5]. That works out to about $1,167 a coin [7] and just under 65% of everything the fund gained [3]. Cryptobriefing called that "less of a vote of confidence from the outside and more of a reshuffling within the family" [16].
The same report says holding nearly 3.52% of circulating supply inside one fund "creates a meaningful supply constraint" [14]. For DCG's share of it, I doubt that. Those 85,705 coins are about 0.51% of the roughly 16.9m ZEC the fund's own percentage implies [6][5]. DCG held them before September 8, so the deposit changed the wrapper and not the quantity available to buyers.
The other 46,179 coins came from depositors other than DCG [4], about $54m at the September 8 price [16]. An authorised participant creating in kind has to source the coins somewhere, and ZCSH is the only listed US spot product giving direct ZEC exposure [11], so there is no rival fund those creations could have been drawn out of. DCG may also never sell, in which case its coins stay off the market either way.
The dollar figures do not reconcile. Over $70m arrived in the first two weeks [7] and roughly $60.5m of weekly contributions followed by mid-September [8], about $130.5m together. That makes a single $100m deposit close to three-quarters of the disclosed total [15]. Cryptobriefing does not say which week the deposit falls in, or whether the $46.6m single day [9] was DCG's. If October's creations arrive without a DCG entity on the other side, outside demand is the better explanation.
What to watch
- Whether October's in-kind creation records show a DCG-affiliated entity on the depositing side of any new shares.
- Any DCG filing to sell or redeem ZCSH shares. Such a filing would turn the September deposit into a route out of a coin position.
- Whether ZEC holds near the roughly $1,501 implied by $895m of assets across 596,269 coins, since the AUM headline moves with the price.