Privacy tokens are taking center stage this week, bucking the slump that has affected the broader cryptocurrency market.
Notable commentators in the cryptocurrency space have been predicting a spike in privacy coin prices for months. Their projections now appear to be coming true.
Some have wondered whether there hasn’t been a coordinated effort to pump privacy coin prices. Zcash Foundation’s executive director, Alex Bornstein, has told Cointelegraph that Zcash’s recent success is due to broader concerns about governments infringing on users’ right to privacy.
A combination of hype and technicals has put privacy coins back in the spotlight as other coins struggle.
Zcash
Privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) has made impressive gains, with its market capitalization up more than 10% over the last week. Zcash’s price is up over 76% over the last seven days to $632. It flipped Monero (XMR) to become the largest privacy coin by market capitalization.
The price increase follows significant upgrades made by the network’s developer, the Electric Coin Company. At the beginning of the month, the company introduced cross-chain swaps and private payments by integrating with the transaction layer Near Intents.
The integration resulted in a spike in Zcash volume on Near Intents and an expansion of the “shielded pool” — i.e., the collection of encrypted addresses where ZEC is stored.
Bornstein told Cointelegraph on Chain Reaction that “there’s just a powerful narrative, and I think people are just waking up to what Zcash can really accomplish.”
Related: Why Zcash and privacy tokens are back in the conversation
Monero
Monero (XMR), which until recently was the largest privacy coin on the market, saw a near 10% price gain over the past week. Its market capitalization increased 2.7% to $6.62 billion.
On Oct. 8, the Monero blockchain introduced the Flourine Fermi update to the network, which aims to provide users with greater security against “spy nodes.”
In Monero vernacular, spy nodes are malicious nodes, groups of nodes or botnets that can calculate transactions and match them to addresses on the Monero network.
Related: Monero releases Flourine Fermi update to fight spy nodes
As privacy coins become increasingly difficult to use amid exchange delistings, regulation and the aforementioned spy nodes, the Monero community has fought to keep the blockchain private.
It has also established safety protocols. In late 2024, Monero Research Lab suggested allowing node operators to compile a ban list of suspected spy nodes based on their IP addresses.
Dash
The price of privacy coin Dash (DASH) is up over 130% on the week, finishing the seven-day period at just north of $107.
On Nov. 2, decentralized exchange Aster DEX launched Dash perpetual futures trading with 5x leverage. Listing on the new exchange boosted liquidity and visibility for the token. Analysts have noted that part of the price increase can be attributed to the current narrative surrounding privacy coins.
ZKsync
The price of privacy coin ZKsync (ZK) is up 113% to trade at $0.063 at the end of the week.
ZKsync, an Ethereum layer 2 that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups to process transactions offchain, could soon see major changes to its governance token.
On Tuesday, ZKsync co-creator Alex Gluchowski argued that the network has evolved significantly since the project’s inception, stating that it now hosts several interconnected zero-knowledge chains.
Related: ZKsync creator floats governance token revamp to add ‘economic utility’
He said, “The goal is to align usage with value, make decentralization economically sustainable, and ensure the network captures a meaningful share of the economic benefits it creates.”
To accomplish this, Gluchowski suggested changes to the tokenomics, stating it should derive onchain value from fees generated from “interoperability and other core settlement and messaging functions” and offchain via licensing agreements for “enterprise software components.”
He also suggested licensing deals for when large enterprises adopt the network. “When such capabilities are funded by the ecosystem, it is reasonable that their use by enterprise participants returns value to the ecosystem.”
Decred
Decred’s (DCR) price has also been on a tear this week. The token spiked on Monday before settling down but finished the week up 90% at $30.
Decred’s price was in a relatively narrow range for much of the past two years. The recent price surge suggested a narrative-driven increase as other privacy token prices pumped.
On Nov. 3, CoinMarketCap recognized Decred as a privacy coin, which has also drawn attention to its staking and governance structure. The network uses a hybrid proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) mining system to “ensure that a small group cannot dominate the flow of transactions or make changes to Decred without the input of the community.”
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