Zcash and NEAR Surge Amid Growing Focus on Privacy-Preserving DeFi

Zcash and NEAR Protocol have seen significant price gains this week, with experts attributing the rally to the rising demand for confidential transactions. Illia Polosukhin of NEAR Protocol and Mert Mumtaz of Helius discussed how both networks are evolving into privacy-focused liquidity layers for institutional use. The discussion covered technical developments including NEAR's secure enclaves and MPC model, Zcash's zero-knowledge shielded pools, and the upcoming Project Tachyon upgrade for Zcash.