A registration statement for a spot Zcash exchange-traded fund backed by Winklevoss Capital and Gemini-affiliated entities has been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a Nasdaq listing under the ticker "WINK," according to the document and Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who first reported the filing.

The proposed fund would hold ZEC directly, forgo leverage and derivatives, and charge an annual sponsor fee of 0.25%, the filing shows. Winklevoss Asset Services would sponsor the product, with affiliate Gemini Trust Company, a New York-based digital-asset custodian, holding the underlying tokens.

What would the fund actually track?

The ETF would track ZEC's spot price, allowing investors to gain exposure through a traditional brokerage account without acquiring or self-custodying a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable shielded transactions that conceal transaction amounts and the identities of senders and recipients, a design absent from bitcoin and ether, where every transaction sits on a fully transparent ledger.

ZEC traded at roughly $1,354 on Tuesday, giving the token a market capitalization near $23 billion and a rank as the 10th-largest cryptocurrency, according to CoinGecko. The asset has risen more than 735% over the past twelve months.

How much are the Winklevoss firms committing?

Winklevoss Capital Fund, through one or more affiliates, has indicated interest in buying up to $100 million in shares of the proposed ETF, the registration statement discloses. The filing notes the potential commitment is not binding and provides no assurance the full amount will be deployed.

Winklevoss Capital and Gemini Trust operate under common ownership. Gemini runs a US-regulated crypto exchange and provides custody services to institutional digital-asset products.

Where does this fit in the existing ZEC market?

The Winklevoss product would compete directly with Grayscale's Zcash Trust (ZCSH), which is already trading in the US. Grayscale recently announced a 3-for-1 share split for ZCSH, a corporate action that lowers the per-share price and broadens retail access. A second, fee-comparable vehicle could compress ZCSH's persistent premium or discount to net asset value, a structural feature of closed-end crypto trusts that has historically diverged from underlying spot prices.

What is the regulatory path?

The SEC will now examine the registration statement, a process that typically runs several months and may include multiple rounds of staff comments on custody, surveillance and market-manipulation risk. Privacy-coin products introduce additional review questions because shielded transactions limit the on-chain data visibility the agency has historically required from spot-ETF applicants.

The Commission retains discretion to extend the review window or request amendments before issuing an order. If approved, the Winklevoss Zcash ETF would become one of the first US-listed funds providing direct retail exposure to a privacy-focused blockchain asset.