Bitcoin (BTC) is 65.3× the size of Zcash (ZEC) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, ZEC is ahead by 2934.1 percentage points (ZEC +2904.4% against BTC -29.7%). Their daily returns move loosely together (correlation 0.44 across 399 shared trading days). ZEC has been the more volatile of the two, at 161% annualised against BTC's 44%.
| Period | ZEC | BTC | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | +30.97% | +5.14% | ZEC |
| 30 days | +158.56% | +11.26% | ZEC |
| 90 days | +238.63% | +28.33% | ZEC |
| 1 year | +2904.41% | -29.73% | ZEC |
| Metric | ZEC | BTC |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -71.8% | -53.0% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 1.93 | 0.74 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +514.2% | +26.8% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -59.2% | -32.9% |
Relative strength over 90 days: ZEC outperformed BTC by 163.9% — measured on the ZEC/BTC ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.