Privacy has emerged as the strongest-performing sector in cryptocurrency since the market peak in October 2025. Data from Glassnode indicates that privacy is the only sector to move above its October peak, registering a 213% gain, while all other sectors remain below their levels from that time.
By comparison, Bitcoin sits 36% below its October 2025 high, and the median asset among the top 200 cryptocurrencies is down 58%. Other sectors remain below their October 2025 marks, ranging from DeFi at 27% lower to Gaming at 74% lower.
The privacy sector's market capitalization expanded from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion, with nearly half of that increase occurring during a recent 30-day period when the sector rose by 90%.
Zcash (ZEC) has been the largest contributor to this expansion, jumping in market-cap ranking from 82nd to 10th. Zcash increased by more than 2,200% over the period and now accounts for 62% of the privacy sector's total capitalization. Monero (XMR) doubled over the same timeframe.
Gains within the privacy sector extend beyond a single asset, as all eight privacy coins with a full year of trading history are higher. Excluding ZEC, the cap-weighted privacy basket remains up 85% over the year and 56% since Bitcoin's October high. DASH, XMR, and ZEN have each outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days, and ZEC and XMR are among only four assets in the top 25 trading above their October 6 prices.
Broader market conditions show that while 91.5% of the top 200 assets posted gains over a recent 30-day period, only 25 of those 200 assets remain in positive territory over a full year.
