Zcash Leads Surge in Privacy Coins as Sector Defies Crypto Market Downturn
The cryptocurrency market has been trending downwards since its peak in October 2025, but one sector is bucking this trend - privacy coins. According to Glassnode's data, the basket of privacy coins has more than tripled since the bitcoin peak and gained 90 percent over the past month alone.
One asset leading this surge is Zcash, which accounts for over 60 percent of the sector's capitalization and has risen more than 25-fold over the past year. The coin's design allows users to choose between a transparent ledger or a shielded pool where transactions are hidden using zero-knowledge proofs.
The catalyst for this recent leg up is Grayscale's Zcash Trust, which began trading on NYSE Arca as the Zcash ETF (ZCSH) in August. The fund has seen significant inflows since its launch, with over $34 million arriving in its first two weeks and a further $12.6 million on September 2.
Other privacy coins, such as Monero, are also experiencing growth despite being delisted by some exchanges due to regulatory concerns. However, demand for these assets appears to be driven by their inherent design features rather than their market availability.