While the remainder of the crypto space has fallen into the doldrums, traders are betting on privacy tokens, especially Zcash.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Zcash (ZEC) rose to a high of $655 on Friday, reaching a market cap of about $10.6 billion. At the time of writing, the rally had cooled and had retreated to $632, giving it a valuation of $10.3 billion and making it the twelfth largest crypto asset by market capitalization.
According to CoinMarketCap, ZEC is up nearly 23% up to now 24 hours and has gained greater than 63% in value over the past week.
The surge extends a breakout run that has made the once-overlooked privacy coin the frontrunner for the “privacy revival” of 2025. This trend is changing the conversation about surveillance-resistant cryptocurrencies and financial autonomy.
Zcash's 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Top privacy tokens are seeing groundbreaking gains over the past week
As Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) proceed to consolidate, the main target has shifted to privacy-focused assets, with ZEC outperforming its competitors reminiscent of Monero (XMR).
Aside from Zcash, CoinMarketCap showed that tokens like Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), and ZKsync (ZK) also saw the largest gains among the many top privacy-focused crypto assets last week.
Dash saw a rise of over 141% within the last week, while Decred and ZKsync saw a price increase of 96% and 122%, respectively. Monero (XMR) also saw gains of virtually 12%, but in comparison with the opposite top privacy coins, XMR's gains were modest.
Monero, once the benchmark for privacy coins, continued to stagnate because it struggled with liquidity issues and delistings from exchanges on account of regulatory scrutiny.
Zcash advantages from a dual-mode design that provides transparent and shielded addresses.
This enables coexistence with regulated exchanges and institutional custody providers. The hybrid model allowed ZEC to be a more attractive selection for investors searching for privacy while avoiding compliance issues.
Zcash leads charge over privacy tokens
Zcash's charge is driven by grassroots advocacy and high-profile support from industry figures, including Arthur Hayes, Naval Ravikant, Mert Mumtaz and Threadguy, key figures who’ve spent months championing privacy as crypto's next big narrative.
Their posts and podcasts reinforced the message that Zcash's zero-knowledge technology could represent a pure type of decentralized value transfer that remains to be viable even in a tightening regulatory environment.
On Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction show, Alex Bornstein, executive director of the Zcash Foundation, said that neither the muse nor the Electric Coin Company paid influencers to advertise ZEC. He said the recent wave of advocacy was more of a spontaneous cultural shift than a coordinated campaign.
However, not everyone seems to be obsessed with Zcash. Jan3 CEO and Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow warned Zcash investors on Thursday to “determine” their positions. Mow compared Zcash to Dogecoin and advised Zcash investors to make use of their profits to buy BTC.
