Bitcoin's hovering around $87-88k as we close out the year, consolidating after that wild ride from October highs. Everyone's been talking ETFs, institutional inflows, memes exploding left and right. But quietly, in the background, privacy coins have been the real standout performers of 2025 up over 70% as a sector in some metrics, with spikes even higher late in the year, way outpacing BTC's gains.
Zcash in particular has been on fire, trading around $515-518 today after a solid 10-15% pump in recent sessions. That's not just random volatility; on-chain data shows real conviction building. The shielded pool—those fully private addresses using zk-SNARKs—has held steady around 23-30% of total supply all year, even hitting highs near 30% earlier. Holders are choosing privacy deliberately, locking coins away instead of dumping during rallies. It reduces liquid supply at a time when demand's picking up from folks wary of full transparency.
Think about why this matters now. Institutions are all in—banks launching BTC products, billions flowing on-chain—but every big trade on Ethereum or Bitcoin is visible. Front-running becomes easy, strategies get copied. Zcash's optional shielding lets you hide amounts and addresses while still proving validity. Critics say it could enable illicit stuff, and yeah, regulators have delisted privacy coins before. But with features for selective disclosure (audits if needed), it's more pragmatic than mandatory-privacy plays like Monero. XMR's holding strong around $450, great for pure anonymity, but ZEC's flexibility seems to be drawing broader interest this cycle.
However, risks are there. Any fresh regulatory crackdown could sting, especially if macro turns sour and BTC drags everything down. Liquidity's thinner over holidays too. That said, the setup feels compelling Grayscale's Zcash trust, halving echoes, prediction markets heating up. Privacy could power confidential bets or DeFi without exposing positions.
Here's Zcash's 2025 price action: grinding higher through the chop, late year breakout on privacy rotation.
A comparison of ZEC vs XMR—Zcash edging performance lately.
And a breakdown of how shielded transactions work: proving everything without revealing details.
Privacy sector overall crushed it amid the noise.
In a world where on-chain surveillance is ramping up, optional privacy might be the edge institutions quietly need. Accumulating on dips could make sense if this narrative sticks into 2026. Or maybe it's just end-of-year rotation. What do you think real revival or temporary hype?
$ZEC $XMR
$BTC #PrivacyCoins #zcash #Crypto2026 #Monero