Zcash (ZEC) climbed to $1,290, its highest level since November 2016, blockchain media outlet U.Today reported on Tuesday (all times local).

Zcash hit $1,290 intraday and posted a 1-year return of 2,413%. It was up 10.55% from 24 hours earlier at $1,282. Weekly gains were calculated at 57.23%. CoinGecko data showed the token is up 154% over the past 30 days. The surge lifted Zcash's market capitalisation to $21.62 billion, keeping it among the top privacy coins.

The recent upswing gathered pace after a bullish pennant breakout in early September. Zcash rebounded from a low of $804 on Sept. 3 and rose to $1,257 on Sept. 6 before a brief pause. It then pushed to a higher peak as buying returned.

On the supply-and-demand side, buying by large holders stood out. Lookonchain said three wallets believed to belong to the same whale deployed 3,700 ether, about $9.23 million, and 2 million USDC to buy a total of 8,994 ZEC. The purchases totalled about $11.23 million, and the wallets are still buying, Lookonchain said.

Signs of new inflows were also seen in derivatives markets. Over the past 24 hours, Zcash open interest rose 15.47% to $2.91 billion. Coinglass data showed $11.52 million of short positions were liquidated over the same period, while long liquidations totalled $2.33 million. That suggests short liquidations may have pushed prices higher during the climb.

An options market also opened for the first U.S.-listed privacy-asset ETP. Zcash ETF options started trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The product, traded under the symbol ZCSH, had more than $500 million in assets under management as of the announcement and holds more than 550,000 ZEC.

Grayscale's Zcash ETF began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH on Aug. 25. The product offers a route to invest in ZEC through a brokerage account without a wallet. With spot buying, derivatives inflows and an expansion of ETF-linked products occurring at the same time, Zcash's price trend appears to have steepened further.