Winklevoss Asset Services has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Zcash ETF on Nasdaq under WINK, with a 0.25% annual fee and up to $100 million of nonbinding purchase interest from Winklevoss Capital.
Summary
- Winklevoss Asset Services filed for a Nasdaq Zcash ETF that would directly hold ZEC tokens.
- The proposed WINK fund would charge 0.25% annually and use Gemini Trust for ZEC custody.
- Winklevoss Capital affiliates indicated interest in buying up to $100 million of shares after launch.
- Grayscale’s competing ZCSH already trades on NYSE Arca and recently completed a three-for-one share split.
- ZEC trades near $1,341 after gaining more than 700% during the past twelve months alone.
The SEC filing shows that the proposed Winklevoss Zcash ETF would own ZEC directly and seek to track the cryptocurrency’s price after operating expenses. Gemini Trust Company, an affiliate of the sponsor, would hold the fund’s ZEC.
The registration statement remains preliminary. Shares cannot be sold until the registration becomes effective, and the filing does not give a date for WINK to begin trading.
Winklevoss Zcash ETF would hold ZEC directly
WINK is designed as a passive product, giving brokerage investors exposure to ZEC without requiring them to buy the cryptocurrency or manage private keys themselves.
Under the proposed structure, the trust would not use leverage or derivatives to track Zcash. Its assets would not be loaned, pledged or used as collateral, the prospectus states.
Gemini would safeguard all ZEC owned by the trust. The SEC filing identifies the company as a New York-chartered entity supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Gemini is part of the same corporate group as the sponsor, a relationship the filing identifies as a potential conflict of interest.
The ETF could process creations and redemptions using either ZEC or cash. Authorized participants using in-kind creations would deliver ZEC into the trust’s custody account, while cash orders would require the fund to arrange purchases through trading counterparties. Redemptions could work through the same two methods.
Winklevoss Asset Services has set its annual sponsor fee at 0.25% of the trust’s ZEC holdings. The fee would accrue daily and could be paid monthly in ZEC or cash, while the sponsor retains the ability to waive part or all of the charge for specified periods.
Cypherpunk Technologies has been named the fund’s Zcash ecosystem partner. Its possible duties include helping with coinholder polling, protocol developments and other Zcash-related technical matters, according to the prospectus.
The $100 million interest is not a commitment
Winklevoss Capital Fund has “indicated an interest” in buying up to $100 million worth of WINK shares through affiliates once the product becomes available.
The SEC filing makes clear that the figure is not a purchase commitment. Winklevoss Capital or its affiliates could ultimately acquire more, less or none of the proposed amount.
No seed investment has been finalized in the preliminary prospectus. Fields covering the seed investor, number of seed shares and initial purchase amount remain blank.
The sponsor itself is new. Winklevoss Asset Services was formed in Delaware on Oct. 1, five days before the S-1 was filed. The prospectus says its personnel have experience with exchange-traded products, but the newly formed sponsor has not previously managed a pooled investment vehicle.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the filing arrived exactly 13 years after Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss made their early attempt to create a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Their latest filing gives the proposed Zcash fund the ticker WINK, while Cameron Winklevoss signed the registration statement as chief executive officer of the sponsor.
WINK would compete with Grayscale’s live Zcash ETF
A Winklevoss product would enter a U.S. market where investors can already buy a spot Zcash fund.
Grayscale’s ZCSH began trading on NYSE Arca in August after the company converted its long-running Zcash Trust. As previously reported in crypto.news coverage of Grayscale’s Zcash ETF launch, the product gives investors direct ZEC exposure through publicly traded shares.
The two products would have sharply different fees if WINK launches under its current terms. Grayscale’s SEC prospectus sets its annual sponsor fee at 2.5%, compared with the 0.25% proposed for WINK.
ZCSH has gone through several changes since its August debut. Grayscale completed a 3-for-1 share split on Sept. 30, increasing outstanding shares from 7.99 million to 23.97 million while reducing NAV per share from $111.41 to $37.14. The split did not change the total value of each investor’s holdings.
Inrelated crypto.news coverage of the ZCSH share split, Grayscale said the adjustment followed strong growth in the fund after its launch.
Digital Currency Group had already put $100 million into ZCSH before the split. An SEC filing confirmed that DCG bought shares worth roughly $100 million on Sept. 8 in exchange for 85,705.32563297 ZEC. Unlike the Winklevoss Capital indication, the DCG transaction was completed.
Grayscale expanded its custody setup again in late September. A filing disclosed that Anchorage Digital Bank became an additional custodian capable of holding part of ZCSH’s ZEC.
ZEC remains above $1,300 as WINK awaits approval
Zcash entered the new ETF filing with a market value above $20 billion after a steep rise during 2026.
At 02:19 UTC on Oct. 7, ZecStats showed ZEC trading near $1,358.20, up 0.8% over 24 hours. Its market capitalization stood close to $22.3 billion, placing the cryptocurrency 10th by market value on the tracker.
CoinGecko data recorded an Oct. 6 closing price of $1,365.02, compared with $1,438.21 on Sept. 30. Daily trading volume stood at roughly $708 million on Oct. 7.
The new prospectus contains extensive disclosures about the Zcash network’s privacy technology and its 2026 Orchard security incident. A researcher at Shielded Labs discovered a flaw in May that could theoretically have allowed counterfeit ZEC to be created inside the Orchard shielded pool. Developers carried out an emergency upgrade in early June.
Zcash developers said there was “no evidence” that the weakness had been exploited, but the ETF prospectus warns that Zcash’s privacy design prevents a conclusive cryptographic determination. The later Ironwood upgrade restricted deposits and internal transfers into Orchard and introduced a replacement shielded pool.
The incident and subsequent repair were covered in crypto.news reporting on the Orchard vulnerability and ZEC selloff. The SEC filing now lists the episode among the risks prospective WINK investors are being asked to consider.
WINK still has steps to clear before trading
The Oct. 6 S-1 begins the registration process but does not give WINK permission to start selling shares immediately.
Several parts of the preliminary document remain unfinished. The pricing benchmark and benchmark provider have not been named, while fields for the administrator, transfer agent, cash custodian, basket size and seed-share transaction remain blank.
The prospectus says the shares are expected to trade on Nasdaq under WINK “subject to notice of issuance.” It states that the public offering can begin only after the registration statement becomes effective.
No launch date appears in the filing, and the sponsor can amend the registration statement as the SEC review proceeds.
