In the second half of 2025, privacy coins suddenly become market set speeds while the rest of crypto grinds through ETF flows, basis trading and macro beta. Resurgence of Zcash.
Coindesk Research’s Deep dive into Zcash Frames The Pivot: Shielded Adoption climbs to nearly a fifth supply; More than 30% of transactions now handle the shield pool; And Zashi, a first-party wallet, makes private transfers by default and implements a “pre-spend shield.” The effect is an expanding set of anonymity and a user experience that no longer treats privacy as an advanced setting, but the baseline of how money should be moved.
The sentiment markets
The price action tells its own story: Zcash is about 741% since Sep. 28, while Monero is up about 54% since August. Even the long names like and both early privacy-focused projects that originated in 2017 and 2014, have rallied 145% and 337% respectively in recent weeks.
The awesomeness of the move happens against a bloody macro backdrop. Bitcoin and ether fell to multi-month lows as traders circled risk and back on a stronger US dollar. The opposite relationship has given the move to privacy coins a symbolic edge: investors seem to be buying privacy, not yield.
From institutions back to individuals
It’s a remarkable turnaround for a market that has spent the past two years celebrating the arrival of ETFs, custodians and corporate compliance desks. Privacy coins are emerging precisely because they represent the opposite of that trend: tools for individuals, not institutions.
To the early cypherpunks, privacy wasn’t a marketing gimmick. This is the foundation of financial freedom. A decade later, the appeal returned for a different reason. In a world of AI-enhanced surveillance and constant data collection, anonymity is reframed not as secrecy, but as self-protection.
Zcash’s return reflects the shift in sentiment. The network’s technology, built on zero-knowledge proofs that allow users to verify transactions without disclosing them, has matured to the point where privacy does not require trade-offs. Transactions settle in seconds, shield balances sync quickly, and compliance features such as viewing keys allow users to share data selectively. This is privacy by default, not a loophole.
The Tornado Cash Cautionary Tale
That doesn’t mean regulators are looking the other way. The prosecution of cash cash developers remains a reminder that privacy still resides in a legal gray zone. In August, a New York jury Found co-founder Roman Storm Guilty of operating an unlicensed money remittance business, though he failed to be convicted of more serious money laundering charges. In the Netherlands, developer Alexey Pertsev is serving a five-year sentence on related grounds.
However, the wind can turn. In March, the US Treasury was quiet Removed Tornado Cash from its sanctions listacknowledging that the case raised difficult questions about code, speech and liability. It is a tacit admission that the blunt instrument of sanctions may not fit decentralized software.
The contrast with zcash is instructive. Tornado is a mixer, a smart contract that pools and redistributes funds, while Zcash is a full blockchain with built-in privacy and an option for transparency. The difference in architecture makes the blanket more difficult to implement.
Entrepreneurs rediscover “digital cash”
Bitcoin acted as proof that money can exist without banks, privacy coins prove that it can exist without tracking. Recent trade flows show capital moving toward assets that function more like cash, are immediate, unauthorized, and difficult to track.
Zcash and Monero led that shift for one obvious reason: they are used, not just traded. On-chain data shows Zcash’s Shielded Pool, where senders, receivers and value are encrypted, has grown to hold around 25-30% of the circulating supply, its largest share since the network’s launch.
Analysts at Coindesk Research say more than a third of transactions today touch the private layer, evidence that users are actively moving coins through encrypted channels rather than keeping them visible on public ledgers.
Crypto goes full circle
The rally in privacy coins may be less about speculation than identity. Bitcoin has shown that money can move without borders; Ethereum has proven that finance can run without intermediaries; Zcash reminds markets that financial privacy is still important.
After years of institutional packaging, derivatives and ETFs, the pendulum is swinging back to the ideals that launched the industry in the first place: individual freedom and the right to transact without supervision.
Whether or not regulators allow this shift to continue unsupervised remains to be seen, but the market is clearly convinced of this—the best performing crypto assets are those that resemble cash, and that trend is set to continue.
