Zcash Whale’s Spot Bag Hits $220M Unrealized Profit Along With $58M Short Hedge

Zcash has delivered one of the more striking 30-day performances in the current altcoin cycle — up 171.65% from below $600 to above $1,500. The price action is the backdrop. The more interesting story is what one large holder built against it: a nine-figure spot book acquired last December, now being partially hedged through an underwater perpetual short on Hyperliquid.

At $1,530.43 with a market cap of approximately $25.82 billion, ZEC is trading near the mark price of a derivatives position that is bleeding — while the spot position beneath it is sitting on approximately $220 million in unrealized gains.

The Spot Stack — 202K ZEC Pulled Off Binance Last December

On-chain commentator @mlmabc connected a Hyperliquid account to wallets associated with @GarrettBullish — tracing the origin of the position to two Binance withdrawals on December 24, 2025:

Wallets cited:

• t1dHheg2SkTGBMK1VsCPwsqJ3Gccsnen7rf
• t1gGCYpyURMo2FcYDSqeR8pgp2Kx9rnT72V

According to @mlmabc, the coins were shielded and then unshielded minutes after withdrawal — a movement through Zcash’s private transaction layer — and the full stack is still held in the transparent wallets.

As covered in our Garrett Jin holds 202,078 ZEC at $312.8M with $224.5M unrealized profit analysis, this position has been tracked in detail — confirming that the full 202K stack remains intact and that the unrealized gain from the December withdrawal basis has continued expanding alongside ZEC’s rally. @mlmabc characterized this as a top-five ZEC holder position — approaching 1% of Zcash’s maximum supply.

At the current price of $1,530, the 202K ZEC position is worth approximately $309 million — up from the ~$88.3 million December acquisition cost, representing roughly $220 million in unrealized spot gain.

As covered in our ZEC short seller down $26M as Garrett Jin holds $51.5M position analysis, this position has been tracked through multiple stages of the ZEC rally — and the spot gain has continued widening against the hedge’s drawdown as price extended from the mid-$600s to above $1,500.

The Hyperliquid Hedge — 38K ZEC Short, -$32.48M Unrealized

The linked Hyperliquid address — 0x92ea19eceb7a8de0f50978a1583a5d8b018050e9 — shows a portfolio dashboard value of approximately $142.93 million with two open perpetual positions:

The ZEC short is deeply underwater. ZEC ran from the mid-$600s — near the $671.05 entry — to above $1,500, producing a -$32.48 million unrealized loss on the perp position.

Why the Losing Short Is Not the Story

As documented in our ZEC short seller down $26M as Garrett Jin holds $51.5M position breakdown, the short position’s losses have been tracked through multiple stages of ZEC’s rally — and each time, the framing has been the same: the perp drawdown is not the defining feature of this position. The spot book is.

The short covers approximately 38,000 of the 202,080 ZEC held in spot — roughly one-fifth of the total position. It is a partial hedge, not a full directional short.The math makes the relationship clear:

A short that is red can still be doing its job when the spot side is larger and greener. Here, the spot gain dwarfs the perp drawdown by approximately 7x. The 38K short was never sized to cap the full 202K spot position — it was sized to reduce exposure on a portion of it.

What Happens From Here — Two Scenarios

If ZEC continues higher: The 38K short bleeds further while the remaining 164K unhedged spot position continues marking up. The net position keeps growing as long as the spot gain outpaces the incremental short losses.

If ZEC reverses toward $670: The short hedge begins paying — recovering some of the perp losses — while the spot book gives back a portion of its rally gains. The hedge activates as intended at lower prices.

The most significant potential development to watch: whether the 202K ZEC in transparent wallets gets deposited into Hyperliquid. If those coins move onto the exchange, the hedge structure could expand significantly — turning what is currently a small partial hedge into a much larger trade. As long as the coins stay in the transparent wallets, the current setup remains a spot book with a small derivative overlay.

Bottom Line

ZEC’s 171% monthly rally is real. The cleaner read on this wallet structure is not “someone is short Zcash.” It is a large spot holder — sitting on approximately $220 million in unrealized gains from a December 2025 acquisition — carrying a 38K ZEC short as a partial hedge on roughly one-fifth of a 202K coin position.

The short is losing. The position is winning. Those two things are not contradictory when the spot book is seven times the size of the perp exposure.

Watch two things: Whether the 202K ZEC stays in the transparent wallets or moves toward Hyperliquid — and whether the ZEC price action toward $670 or away from it determines when, if ever, the hedge starts earning back its current drawdown.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written by

Nilesh Hembade

Nilesh Hembade is the Founder and Author of Coinsprobe, with 5+ years of experience in cryptocurrency and blockchain. Since launching the platform in 2023, he delivers daily, research-driven insights through market analysis, on-chain data, and technical research. His work has been featured on Binance, Bitget, and CoinMarketCap. He is also certified through Binance Academy (NFT Certificate).

›