Privacy cryptocurrencies have become the strongest-performing segment of the cryptocurrency markets, increasing 213% from the peak price of Bitcoin in October 2025, according to data from the on-chain data provider Glassnode.
That gap is unusual. While Bitcoin remains about 36% off its all-time peak that was set in October 2025, the median asset among the 200 largest cryptocurrencies currently by market capitalization is off 58%. In contrast, privacy coins are the only tracked sector that has decisively moved above the previous 0.1% threshold.
A similar trend persisted in a shorter period. The 10 largest crypto sectors tracked in the dataset all saw gains in the past 30 days, the largest of which were privacy assets, growing 90%. In spite of this recovery, decentralized finance, Layer 1 networks, artificial intelligence, real-world assets, memecoins and Layer 2 projects have not returned to October 2025 levels.
The rise has been accompanied by a similar rise in the market capitalization of privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies. The top 200 privacy coins had a roughly $7.1 billion market capitalization a year before, which has grown to $33.6 billion, with close to half occurring in the past 30-day surge.
ZEC▲$465.18 was by far its biggest contributor, accounting for 62% of the total market cap of privacy coins according to the on-chain metrics firm Glassnode. The price of ZEC went up by 2,496% during the year, and its rank in cryptocurrency market caps moved from 82nd to 7th place.
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However, as a market cap-weighted basket of all other privacy coins shows, this is no Zcash phenomenon. Without ZEC’s bloc, privacy markets are up about 85% year-on-year, and 56% since Bitcoin’s peak in October 2025. Of the eight privacy coins with at least one year of price history, all have increased.
Monero is likewise resilient. XMR▲$323.54 was one of just four assets in the top 25 that stayed above where it had traded at Bitcoin’s all-time high in October 2025. In total, 91.5% of the top 200 assets have recovered over the 30-day rally, but only 25 assets have recovered over a more extended period.
Privacy coins attempt to protect transaction data from being accessed by obscuring details about participants, balances, or transaction history. Their resurgence also indicates that there is a demand for the technology, despite the sector remaining exposed to the wild price movements and regulatory uncertainty characterizing cryptocurrency.
Glassnode therefore also showed a very uneven recovery. While most of the crypto market is still recovering from the 2025 crash, privacy assets have long since recouped their declines. In particular, it’s Zcash that is well ahead of everything else, but really all assets in the category are far ahead.
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The lead is still there when excluding the number one constituent by market cap. That reduces how much of the 213% headline result can be attributed to a single token, but not the size of the gap.
