Privacy Coins Surge 213% While Bitcoin Lags Behind
Glassnode sees Zcash as the driver behind the rally, while DeFi and gaming are lagging badly. The sector is now the only one above Bitcoin’s October peak level.
Key Takeaways
- Privacy coins have risen 213% since Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak, while almost every other crypto sector is lower.
- Zcash is the main driver behind the sector’s rise and is up 687% since Bitcoin’s peak.
- The broader crypto market remains weak: Bitcoin is 36% below its all-time high, and the median top-200 coin is 58% cheaper.
Privacy coins have risen 213% since Bitcoin peaked in October 2025, while almost every other crypto sector is lower. According to Glassnode, Zcash is by far the main driver. The broader crypto market, meanwhile, is still weak: the median coin in the top 200 is 58% cheaper than it was on October 6, 2025, and Bitcoin is still trading 36% below its record.
Privacy as the Only Green Sector
Glassnode tracks ten sectors and compares them with their price on October 6, 2025, the day Bitcoin peaked on Binance at $126,199 (€108,600). In that comparison, privacy is the only sector in the green. The biggest loser is DeFi, which is 27% lower than it was on that date. Gaming is doing the worst and is down 74%.
That picture stands in sharp contrast to the past month, when all ten sectors rose. Even then, privacy coins led the way with a 90% gain. Still, the ranking did not change. Only 9% of the top 200 was above October’s price even after that broad rebound.
Zcash Pulls the Sector Higher
The privacy coins sector was worth $7.1 billion (€6.1 billion) a year ago and is now estimated at $33.6 billion (€28.9 billion). That is just a bit more than Tron, the eighth-largest crypto. Zcash is responsible for most of that growth. The coin is trading around $1,180 (€1,020) and ranks ninth by market value, with a valuation of $19.9 billion (€17.1 billion).
Zcash itself is up 687% since Bitcoin’s peak, far more than the sector as a whole. Monero, the other big name in privacy coins, has roughly doubled over the same period. Together, Zcash and Monero make up about 90% of the sector’s value.
Zcash’s climb has not been perfectly smooth. In June, the project had to patch a critical bug in the shielded pool, after which that pool was further locked down in July with the Ironwood network upgrade. In August, the coin was still around $675 (€581), but a few days later Zcash broke above $1,000 (€860).
Why This Matters
For European crypto followers, this shows how strongly money can rotate into one theme right now. While most sectors are still below their earlier levels, privacy is attracting both capital and attention. That could matter for investors tracking rotation in the crypto market, especially now that institutional interest is also showing up through products tied to Zcash.
