Zcash is about to hit a milestone when it comes to mining revenue. According to recent data by Coin Metrics, Zcash miners have received almost $1 billion in mining revenue since the project's inception in 2016. So far, the total stands at $994,842,737 as of September 15.
Although this is a lot lower than the $14 billion generated through Bitcoin mining, proportionally Zcash miners have made up for their smaller market cap. While Bitcoin has a market capitalization almost 500x larger than Zcash, its mining revenue is only 14x larger that of Zcash's.
This means that much of the Zcash's circulating supply was minted when Zcash had a higher value, whereas the opposite is true for Bitcoin. This can be considered a positive indicator for Zcash, as it shows the privacy coin is growing faster than its early days, despite its value deteriorating in 2018 and 2019.
Back in February, the Zcash team announced that it had patched a potentially catastrophic vulnerability that could have allowed for infinite ZEC to be created. Despite the bad news, Zcash began a strong bull run, climbing from under $46 to as high as $120 by June—almost tripling its value. Then it crashed.
But now, Zcash is recovering, back at $50, up 4% in the last 24 hours and 8.7% in the last week. The cryptocurrency is now at its highest value since late August, indicating things may be looking up for the privacy coin.