A user inquired why Solana over Zcash, which has risen more than 1,054% in a year amid increasing privacy-coin interest and a reported Multicoin Capital investment.
- Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz called SOL vs ZEC on X “completely different types of assets,” comparing them to Robinhood and gold.
- Mumtaz portrayed Solana as a productive platform like Robinhood and ZEC as a monetary store of value like gold as a category error rather than a relative-value trade.
- Mumtaz has strongly promoted Zcash, citing an Orchard shielded pool problem as proof of crypto’s technical flaws and creating a ZK privacy layer over Solana.
Helius Labs co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz brushed off the crypto-Twitter debate over whether to hold Solana (SOL) over Zcash (ZEC) in a post on X, responding to a user asking the question with a pointed analogy: “Why hold Robinhood over gold? They are completely different types of assets.”
The exchange came after X user @p_eng_uin asked why investors should hold SOL over ZEC, arguing that Solana is “a great chain doing lots of good things” but questioning whether the network had “a 10x narrative for this cycle.” The question has gained traction as ZEC has rocketed this year amid a resurgence of interest in privacy coins and a reported investment from crypto fund Multicoin Capital.
SOL And ZEC As ‘Completely Different Types Of Assets’
Mumtaz separated Robinhood-vs-gold into two separate buckets. The two tokens are in different buckets, he said. Solana is a productive platform where value is driven by on-chain activity and the apps it hosts, similar to how Robinhood (HOOD) gets value from trading and transaction flow. Zcash is a monetary store of value, like gold. Under that framework, the question of whether to hold one over the other is a category-based error rather than a relative-value trade-off.
The response matters because Mumtaz is the most public operator on Solana. Helius Labs runs the leading Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service on the Solana network, the Orb explorer, and the indexing layer that most key Solana apps depend on. Mumtaz gets direct revenue from Solana’s success.
Mumtaz Has Engaged Heavily With The Zcash Narrative
Earlier this month, Mumtaz pointed to an AI-assisted audit that uncovered a four-year-old bug in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool as evidence that the broader crypto industry needs aviation-grade engineering standards. The Helius CEO has also indicated his team is building a ZK-based UTXO privacy layer on Solana, inspired by Zcash’s design, suggesting his category-based defense of SOL reflects coexistence with the privacy-coin thesis rather than rivalry with it.
ZEC’s price was trading near $452, down over 4% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around ZEC remained in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘extremely low’ levels over the past day.
In contrast, Solana’s price was trading at $73, up over 1% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, SOL was one of the top trending tickers as retail sentiment around it improved to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter improved to ‘high’ from ‘normal’ levels over the past day.
Read also: Billionaire Says He’ll ‘Never Buy The AI Bubble’, 80% Of His Portfolio Still Sits In Bitcoin
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com<