Christmas holidays are usually a dull period for global financial markets, with various assets mostly trading within narrow ranges. But this year, the crypto market is unusually lively—privacy coin ZEC suddenly sparked a rally.

How intense is this rally? Within 24 hours, ZEC jumped from $404 directly to $450, an 11% increase in a single day. It may not seem earth-shattering, but behind the scenes, up to $350 million in funds flooded in, along with wave after wave of whale accumulation actions, making things quite interesting. The market is starting to discuss: Will the $500 barrier be broken soon?

On-chain data reveals the truth. On Christmas Eve, whale addresses holding more than 1,000 ZEC collectively increased their holdings. The craziest move came from an anonymous address—buying 23,000 ZEC at once, which at the time’s price was over $9.3 million. This guy is really bullish on ZEC and is willing to go all-in.

More importantly, the movement of exchange holdings shows significant activity. From early December to now, ZEC on exchanges has decreased from 1.2 million to 980,000, a reduction of over 18%. What does this mean? A large amount of ZEC held by retail investors is being bought up by whales and then locked in private key addresses. Chips moving from the market to long-term holders usually indicate that something big is about to happen.