Winklevoss Firm Files for Spot Zcash ETF With 0.25% Fee and WINK Ticker

Winklevoss Asset Services has filed a preliminary S-1 with the SEC for a spot Zcash ETF that would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK. The fund would hold ZEC directly, with Gemini Trust Company as custodian, and carry a 0.25% annual sponsor fee that also covers ordinary operating costs.

The sponsor is newly formed and wholly owned by Winklevoss Asset Services Holdings. The trust has also signed Cypherpunk Technologies as its Zcash ecosystem partner, helping with protocol development and coinholder polling. Winklevoss Capital Fund has shown nonbinding interest in buying up to $100 million of shares. The filing makes this the third issuer chasing a US spot Zcash ETF, after Grayscale and Bitwise.

Winklevoss Ties to Zcash and Past ETF Bid

The filing comes 13 years after the twins applied for the first US spot bitcoin ETF, which the SEC rejected in 2017 over price manipulation concerns. Their Zcash links run deep. Gemini was the first licensed exchange to offer Zcash trading and custody, and Cypherpunk bought $29 million of ZEC, lifting its holdings to nearly 2% of circulating supply. Tyler and Cameron also gave $1.2 million worth of ZEC to Shielded Labs, an independent Zcash development group.

Competition From Grayscale’s ZCSH

Grayscale’s Zcash ETF is the only live US spot ZEC fund, trading since August. It drew more than $233 million in inflows and neared $890 million in net assets in under a month, which led to a 3-for-1 split.