While the broader cryptocurrency market has shown signs of recovery this month, privacy-focused coins have staged a distinct rally, setting themselves apart from Bitcoin and most major tokens. Bitcoin remains approximately 36% below its October high, failing to reclaim previous peak levels seen by much of the market last year.
Zcash sees robust inflows and institutional interest
A significant share of the latest surge in privacy coins is attributed to Zcash, a cryptocurrency that emphasizes user privacy and zero-knowledge cryptography. New institutional products have amplified the move: Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, which began trading on August 25, brought net inflows of $34.4 million by September 4, during which time the ZEC token rose above $1,000.
Zcash’s network computing power, also referred to as its hash rate, increased from about 25 GigaSolutions per second in late August to over 30 GigaSolutions per second, signaling greater mining activity and network security.
Coinpaper, a crypto industry research outlet, highlighted that futures open interest for Zcash has climbed to about $2.3 billion, increasing the token’s exposure to leveraged trading and potentially contributing to price volatility.
Despite Zcash’s outperformance, removing it from recent calculations does not invalidate Glassnode’s overarching market analysis. The consultancy attributes the current market pattern to a wider trend across the privacy coin sector.
Recent institutional demand fueled net inflows of $34.4 million into the Zcash ETF, as ZEC climbed above $1,000 and hash rate expanded beyond 30 GSol/s.
Mini dictionary: Grayscale, a leading digital asset investment company, offers cryptocurrency investment trusts and exchange-traded products. Its Zcash ETF allows institutional investors to gain exposure to ZEC without directly holding the coin.
Other privacy coins post strong gains
The recent upswing is not confined to Zcash. Monero, another privacy-focused cryptocurrency known by its ticker XMR, doubled in value over the course of the year. DASH and ZEN, both emphasizing private transactions, have also outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days. Earlier in 2026, Dash recorded a 71% gain, a move accompanied by notable advances in DCR and ZEN. Monero further broke out of a multi-year trading range, with XMR surpassing the $600 mark.
| Coin | Key Event or Price | 90-Day Performance vs. BTC |
|---|---|---|
| Zcash (ZEC) | ZEC > $1,000, ETF inflow | Outperformed |
| Monero (XMR) | XMR > $600, doubled in a year | Outperformed |
| Dash (DASH) | Rose 71% in 2026 | Outperformed |
| Horizen (ZEN) | Beaten BTC in 90 days | Outperformed |
Analysis from Glassnode, an on-chain data and analytics provider, estimates that the total market value in the sector now stands at $33.6 billion, an increase of $26.5 billion. Notably, nearly half of this growth occurred in just the last 30 days, signaling sharply rising interest and capital inflows into privacy coins.
In the most recent broad crypto rally, privacy coins led gains, with a sharp expansion in their market capitalization and outperformance versus Bitcoin.
Broader market context and long-term perspective
Despite the buzz around privacy coins, the overall crypto market remains mixed. Over the past month, 91.5% of the top 200 digital assets posted gains, reflecting a widespread short-term recovery.
However, positive momentum does not extend over longer timeframes. Only 25 of the top 200 assets currently show gains over the past year, underscoring the generally narrow breadth of the market when viewed beyond short-term rallies.
Among the 25 largest digital assets, just four—ZEC, HYPE, XMR and WBT—are priced above their October 6 levels.
