Dash, Monero and Zcash surge as investors rotate to privacy tokens
Privacy-token focus lifted Dash to $73.73 (highest since Jan 20), Monero to $560 (highest since January, 85% above the YTD low), and Zcash past $1,000 for the first time. Zcash is up 3,460% from its 2025 low.
Crypto investors are rotating into privacy tokens, with the group among the industry’s strongest gainers. Dash (CRYPTO: DASH) rose to $73.73, its highest level since January 20. Monero (CRYPTO: XMR) climbed to $560 this week, its highest point since January and 85% above the year-to-date low. Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) crossed $1,000 for the first time and has rallied 3,460% from its 2025 low, lifting its market capitalization to more than $17.5 billion.
CoinGecko said privacy tokens as a group have a market capitalization of more than $28 billion. Other recent top gainers include Decred, Nockchain, Firo, YCash and MinoTari, with many outperforming Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). Privacy coins use different technologies to hide transactions, unlike Bitcoin, ETH and USDC, whose transactions are available on a public ledger. Monero hides sender, receiver and amount by default using ring signatures and stealth addresses.
Zcash allows shielded transfers or public-ledger transactions. The shielded supply has risen to 4.85 million, its highest since May this year, after bottoming at 4.3 million in July. Grayscale's Zcash ETF, NYSE: ZCSH, has gathered more than $463 million in assets under management. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has moved into the greed zone of 75 as investors lean risk-on.
The text says higher odds of Federal Reserve rate hikes may be a risk for these coins after stronger US jobs data on Friday, when the economy added over 162k jobs last month. The source also includes a reference to XRP Price Prediction as Ripple USD (RLUSD) reaches the 2.4 billion milestone.