I think some of the draw for people is Zooko was reference on Satoshi website. So there a level of trust that I think people have with him.
Why have the suits been pumping Zcash lately? No, OG Bitcoiners aren't looking into Zcash. Aren't the majority of the transactions on it public and not even using the shielded addresses? I'm pretty sure Monero has 100x more usage, too. Bitcoin I agree though needs more privacy tools we can start by not arresting developers who build those tools......
https://v.nostr.build/9YBA2YZWddyrXwdc.mp4
Discussion
Statistically impossible to be organic.
You tell me that it goes from 2k transactions per day (5% shielded = 100tx/d) to 30k transactions (30% shielded = 10k/d).
That's x100 in 2 months starting from all time low usage.
This all while most people buy only IOU's on CEX, as there is no DEX for it and merchant statistics still showing ZEC as a rounding error.
It's a classic pump (and distract). So proud of intelligence community pump team in cahoots with SF VC dudes.