Privacy Coins Outrun Bitcoin as Market Rotates Into Zcash and Monero

Privacy‑focused cryptocurrencies have outperformed Bitcoin and most major assets as the broader market stays below October 2025 levels. Data from Glassnode and Bitfinex shows a sharp rotation toward Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR), driven by heightened privacy demand, new institutional products, and sustained on‑chain activity.

Sector Performance

The privacy‑coin basket gained 213% since Bitcoin’s record high of $126,000 on 6 October 2025. Over the past month the sector rose 90%, and its total market value grew from $7.1 billion to $33.6 billion in the last year.

Zcash Leads the Rally

• ZEC accounted for roughly 62% of the privacy sector’s value on 7 September.
• Its price increased more than 25‑fold over the previous year, moving from 82nd to 7th in market‑cap rankings.
• Early September saw ZEC trade above $1,000, supported by short liquidations and inflows into exchange‑traded products.

Monero Shows Resilience

• XMR roughly doubled in the privacy basket that excludes ZEC.
• Monero had already set a new price record in January, maintaining momentum despite delistings on several major exchanges.
• Transaction volumes in 2024‑2025 remained significantly above early‑2020 levels, according to TRM Labs.

Institutional Access Differences

Grayscale launched a Zcash exchange‑traded product (ticker ZCSH) on NYSE Arca on 25 August, providing spot exposure through brokerage accounts. Within two weeks the fund held over $500 million in assets and received a $100 million share purchase from DCG International Investments.

Monero lacks a comparable regulated product, and its default privacy features create compliance challenges for centralized exchanges.

Regulatory Outlook

Both models face regulatory risk. The EU’s upcoming anti‑money‑laundering rules, effective 10 July 2027, will prohibit crypto‑service providers from supporting assets that enable transaction anonymization, potentially impacting Zcash and Monero.