Bunch of things coming together for zcash roughly-simultaneously:
- two halvings in, high inflation rate supply overhang is gone
- most of the 1st two epochs' founders/dev rewards have likely been sold through over the years
- shielded pools are finally usable, and they end up locking-up supply
- quantum recoverability deployed; zcash has one of the best quantum roadmaps
- post Ironwood, zcash now clearly a leading project (& not just within crypto) on AI-security and formal verification
- privacy in renewed focus due to AI
- socialism & wealth taxes driving attention to financial privacy & unseizeable assets
- wallets with good ux, plus usable crosschain tools like Near Intents make holding/using zec practical, finally
Lotta people (including you) saw the potential a decade ago. There were just a bunch of practical roadblocks that took time to work through.