Crypto trader Ansem (@blknoiz06) published his 2026 crypto investment thesis on Wednesday in the simplest format available: two weekly TradingView charts, a horizontal line on each, and arrows pointing in opposite directions. Ethereum heads down through long-term support. Zcash heads up through long-term resistance. The X post drew 185,800 views inside 24 hours.
On the left panel, ETH is shown at $2,112 with a hand-drawn arrow piercing the horizontal level around $1,600 that has framed every major Ethereum consolidation since 2022. On the right, ZEC sits near $580 on a Bitfinex weekly, with an arrow rising from the $700 breakout zone toward $7,000-plus. The asymmetry is the message.
Ansem’s 2026 crypto investment thesis, source: X
The trade is already in motion. At the time of writing, ETH was changing hands around $2,180, holding its $2,120 support zone for now, while ZEC printed $632 on Kraken — up nearly 12% on the day. The catalyst was the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s closure of its Zcash Foundation investigation without enforcement action, ending a subpoena that had hung over the project since August 2023. ZEC futures open interest climbed 35% over the week. Zcash is in a bull market of its own right now. For crypto investors asking what crypto to buy now, Zcash appears to be the clearest answer.
Zcash is up 18% overnight, Source: BNC
Ansem has been telegraphing both sides of the trade for months. He has argued ETH’s thesis “has been weakening consistently for years,” citing Solana’s retail dominance, Hyperliquid’s perpetual-futures lead, and the Aave/KelpDAO rsETH exploit as evidence the network’s institutional moat is no longer self-evident. His ZEC framing was sharper: “What you’re discounting here is that $ZEC has gone through 10 years of accumulation, by the most long-term aligned people in crypto.”
That cohort isn’t small. Tyler Winklevoss’s Cypherpunk Technologies has accumulated 295,000 ZEC — 1.78% of circulating supply — against a stated $9,700 target. Multicoin Capital disclosed a position built since February. Naval Ravikant has voiced public support. ZEC is up roughly 1,200% year-to-date and ranks 11th by market capitalization, with a roughly $10 billion valuation. The case for taking the privacy-coin trade seriously is no longer fringe.
The thesis has detractors. Ethereum bulls have pointed to expanding global liquidity, the CLARITY Act, and ETH holding long-term trendline support as reasons the short call is premature. The chart will settle the argument.
