Privacy coins are the only crypto sector still trading above their October 2025 peak, and Zcash is behind nearly all of it. The token's value has jumped more than 2,200% since then, lifting its market-cap ranking from 82nd to 10th, while Bitcoin remains well below its own high from that period.
Zcash's value has jumped more than 2,200% since October 2025, making it the single largest driver of the privacy-coin sector. Glassnode found that privacy is the only part of the crypto market still above its level from that peak. Bitcoin, by contrast, is currently 36% below its October 2025 high, 335 days after reaching it. The median asset among the top 200 cryptocurrencies is down 58% over the same stretch.
Privacy Is the Only Sector Above Its Peak
The privacy coin sector stands apart from the rest of the market. It has gained 213% since October 2025, the only one of ten sectors Glassnode tracks that sits above its level from that point. Every other sector remains lower. DeFi is 27% below its October level. Gaming is 74% below its own October level. Even so, the gap has held through a broader rebound: over the past 30 days all ten sectors posted gains, and privacy again led with a 90% rise in that window.
Its market cap has grown accordingly, climbing from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion today, a figure roughly comparable to Tron's market capitalization. Nearly half of that increase arrived in the past 30 days.
Zcash Drives the Divergence
Zcash has been the biggest contributor to the sector's market cap expansion. Its own ranking has jumped from 82nd to 10th. It now represents 62% of the privacy sector's total capitalization. Monero, meanwhile, doubled in value over the same period. Still, the rally isn't confined to one token: all eight privacy coins with a full year of trading history are higher, compared with just one in eight assets across the broader top-200 market.
Gains Extend Beyond a Single Token
Excluding Zcash, the cap-weighted privacy basket is still up 85% over the year and 56% since Bitcoin's October high. Over the past 90 days, DASH, XMR, and ZEN each outperformed Bitcoin. Among the 25 largest crypto assets, only four are above their October 6 prices: ZEC, HYPE, XMR, and WBT, and two of those four are privacy coins.
HYPE is the clear exception among the major assets. Without it, the DeFi sector would be down 46% for the year. Every other major asset, including ETH and DOGE, is still trading below its October high.
Source: CryptoPotato
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