• NEAR (NEAR) is the clearest infrastructure watchlist opportunity: track growth in NEAR Intents and confidential DeFi adoption, rather than chasing its reported 69% weekly surge; cross-chain and smart-contract risks remain.
• Zcash (ZEC) offers exposure to privacy demand and cross-chain use, but its reported 32% weekly gain is not a buy signal; monitor the NU7 upgrade and whether real usage grows.
• Treat NU7’s planned reduction in Zcash block times from 75 to 25 seconds as a catalyst to watch, not a completed improvement; Project Acheon’s scale and quantum-resistance goals remain longer-term plans.
• No price targets or direct buy recommendations were provided for ZEC, NEAR, BTC, ETH, or SOL.

Zcash (ZEC)

• Zcash was reported up 32% over the week and ranked No. 9 on CoinGecko at the time of the episode. The discussion linked its strength to rising interest in privacy, its store-of-value role, and new ways to use ZEC in DeFi.
• The speakers described Zcash as similar to Bitcoin but with shielded transactions. Mert argued that privacy is one part of a broader store-of-value case that also includes security, scale, and potential quantum resistance—not a guarantee of continued outperformance.
• NEAR Intents can let users move ZEC across chains or spend it through services without exposing the same transaction details as a fully public transfer. The speakers said ZEC represented roughly $70 million of NEAR Intents’ reported value across confidential and non-confidential balances.
• Mert said Zcash’s upcoming NU7 upgrade is expected to shorten block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, which could improve the experience of cross-chain transactions.
• A later initiative, Project Acheon, was described as a planned path toward much greater scale—potentially 100x—and full quantum resistance. These are development goals, not achieved results.
• The episode discussed a past vulnerability that could have allowed counterfeit ZEC in one pool. Mert said the pool was migrated, more than 90% of funds had migrated, and the system was formally verified multiple times. He said the vulnerability was considered resolved, while acknowledging that absolute certainty is not possible.

Takeaways

• The investment case presented is tied to both privacy demand and the ability to use ZEC in cross-chain finance. Track whether the upgrade roadmap and actual usage support that thesis.
• Consider the trade-off between privacy and transparency: stronger privacy may help adoption, but can make issues harder to observe. The episode also noted that other chains may add privacy features, which could reduce Zcash’s differentiation.
• No price target or direct buy recommendation was given.

NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

• NEAR was reported up 69% over the week and ranked No. 23 on CoinGecko at the time of the episode.
• NEAR’s thesis centers on NEAR Intents, which aims to connect liquidity and transactions across chains including Zcash, Solana, and Ethereum. Users specify what they want to exchange, and solvers compete to provide quotes.
• The speakers described NEAR as a potential cross-chain liquidity layer and said its technology could make crypto applications feel more like a unified market rather than separate chain-based systems.
• NEAR also offers a confidential DeFi approach intended to support programmable applications such as trading, earning, and perpetual positions while keeping transaction information private.
• Ilya reported that NEAR Intents had more than $206 million in total value when confidential balances were included. The discussion noted that third-party tracking may not include all confidential balances.
• The security model involves a multi-party computation network, a balance-tracking contract, and upgrade controls such as time locks and multisignature approvals. NEAR also described monitoring systems that can pause activity when they detect unusual behavior.

Takeaways

• Assess NEAR’s progress through adoption of NEAR Intents and confidential applications, rather than relying on the reported weekly price move alone.
• Cross-chain systems introduce risks at multiple points, including transaction signing, smart-contract upgrades, and the networks being connected. The speakers said users face exposure while funds are moving through the system; integrating NEAR’s full confidential features involves additional protocol risk.
• No price target or direct buy recommendation was given.

Bitcoin (BTC)

• Bitcoin was discussed as a comparison for Zcash. Mert described Zcash as an “encrypted Bitcoin” shorthand, while emphasizing that the two have different trade-offs.
• The host reported that Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana had risen by around 10% over the week, less than the reported moves in Zcash and NEAR.
• The conversation also raised the idea of Bitcoin DeFi, but suggested that Zcash and NEAR were enabling a similar kind of use case through cross-chain access and privacy.

Takeaways

• The discussion presents Zcash and NEAR as ways to extend Bitcoin-like store-of-value or DeFi use cases, not as proof that Bitcoin itself will benefit from those developments.
• The episode offered no Bitcoin price target or specific recommendation.

Ethereum (ETH)

• Ethereum was discussed as one of the chains NEAR Intents can connect to.
• Mert compared NEAR’s sharding approach and cross-chain role with goals associated with Ethereum’s roadmap, arguing that NEAR has implemented sharding and is connecting ecosystems through NEAR Intents.
• Ether was included in the host’s report that Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana had risen around 10% over the week.

Takeaways

• The discussion’s potential opportunity is in cross-chain activity and applications, rather than a specific prediction about ETH.
• The comparison with NEAR was made by the guest and does not establish that NEAR will displace Ethereum. No price target or direct recommendation was given.

Solana (SOL)

• Solana was discussed as a chain that NEAR Intents can connect with, including for swaps involving assets on other networks.
• Mert said Zcash was listed on Solana via NEAR, giving users another route to transact with ZEC.
• Solana was included in the host’s report that Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana had risen around 10% over the week.

Takeaways

• The episode’s positive angle for Solana is its role in a more connected crypto market and in access to Zcash-related activity.
• The discussion did not provide a Solana-specific price target or direct recommendation.

Privacy and Confidential DeFi (Investment Theme)

• The guests argued that privacy could become more important as blockchains are used for everyday payments and business activity. Public transaction data can reveal balances, counterparties, and business costs.
• They distinguished privacy, as used in the discussion of Zcash, from NEAR’s confidential computing approach. Zcash’s model emphasizes shielded transactions; NEAR aims to support private computation for more complex applications such as DeFi.
• The speakers said privacy may be a retention benefit for individual users and a requirement for some institutions that cannot expose customer or business information.
• They also acknowledged that privacy can create security and monitoring challenges. NEAR described monitoring and transaction-pausing tools, while Zcash’s past vulnerability illustrated how difficult some issues can be to detect in a highly private system.

Takeaways

• Follow evidence of real usage—such as payments, business adoption, and applications built on confidential DeFi—rather than treating privacy interest alone as proof of a durable investment opportunity.
• Compare each project’s privacy design with its security controls and transparency trade-offs. The episode provided no sector-wide price target or specific recommendation.