Privacy Coins Defy Market Decline as Zcash Skyrockets 2200%
Market trends have diverged significantly since October 2025's peak. Bitcoin is currently 36% below its high at that time, while the median asset among the top 200 cryptocurrencies has lost 58%. However, one sector stands out: privacy coins.
The privacy sector has seen a significant increase in market capitalization, from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion today. This growth can be attributed largely to Zcash's (ZEC) explosive rise of over 2,200% since October 2025. Its market-cap ranking has jumped from 82nd to 10th.
Despite ZEC's outsized contribution, other privacy coins have also seen significant gains. Monero doubled in value over the same period, and the cap-weighted privacy basket is up 85% for the year and 56% since Bitcoin's October high. Over the past 90 days, DASH, XMR, and ZEN each outperformed Bitcoin.