Privacy coins have experienced a significant rally, climbing 213% since Bitcoin reached its October 2025 peak, according to data from analyst Wise Crypto. This sector-wide gain stands in stark contrast to Bitcoin itself, which remains well below that high, and to most other cryptocurrency categories still in drawdown.
The privacy sector's combined market cap has grown from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion currently. However, much of this growth is concentrated in a single asset: Zcash (ZEC), which now represents approximately 62% of the total privacy market.
Zcash's Outsized Performance
Zcash has appreciated roughly 25x over the past year, with its market capitalization ranking climbing from #82 to #7 at its peak, though it currently ranks #9 according to CoinGecko data. At the time of writing, the asset was trading around $1,140, representing a 32% gain over the previous two weeks and more than 2,100% growth over the past year.
Grayscale's Zcash ETF (ticker $ZCSH) crossed $500 million in assets within two weeks of launch. Monero (XMR), the second-largest asset in the privacy category, has approximately doubled over a similar timeframe despite facing delistings from several exchanges.
Among the 25 largest cryptocurrency assets, only four are currently trading above their October 2025 levels: ZEC, HYPE, XMR, and WBT.
Valuation Questions Remain
The magnitude of Zcash's rally has prompted differing assessments of its valuation. Analyst filbfilb recently shared valuation models comparing Zcash's transaction activity to Bitcoin's at a similar stage of issuance, suggesting implied prices around $944—below current levels. However, these models indicated fair value could reach much higher if Zcash continues closing the gap with Bitcoin's adoption metrics.
For context, Bitcoin was trading near $77,000 at the time of writing, down approximately 1% over 24 hours and 34% over one year, placing it roughly 39% below its October 2025 all-time high.
