ZCash (ZEC), a privacy-centric cryptocurrency — an altcoin with obfuscated transactional data — is the best performer of this week amid the top 100 biggest cryptos. At the same time, it is highly unlikely that the privacy coin rally will return in 2025.
ZCash (ZEC) up by 28% in seven days, other privacy coins lagging
In the last seven days, ZCash (ZEC), a large-cap privacy coin, added almost 28% in price. Earlier today, it hit $368, which is the highest price level since Nov. 29. Meme cryptocurrency MemeCore (M), its closest rival, is only up by 23%.
In the last 24 hours, by contrast, ZCash (ZEC) performed weaker compared to the rest of the market. While the crypto segment benchmark is down by 2.7%, ZEC's price lost 5.6% on surging trading volume.
At the same time, competitive privacy coins Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC), Verge (XVG) are all in the red.
As covered by U.Today previously, ZCash (ZEC) was the central coin of the Q4, 2025 privacy coins euphoria. In just three months between mid-August and mid-November, ZEC's price surged by 20x.
The local peak — $705 per ZEC coin on Nov. 17 — is the highest price for ZCash (ZEC) in almost seven years. The absolute ZCash (ZEC) price ATH was registered over $3,191 in October 2016.
Monero (XMR) dethrones ZCash (ZEC) and becomes biggest privacy coin again
Such an impressive run was catalyzed by institutional interest in ZEC. Backed by Winklevoss twins, Leap Therapeutics rebranded to Cypherpunk Technologies and became the first ever ZEC digital asset treasury company.
Also, investing heavyweight Grayscale filed for the first exchange-traded fund in the U.S. backed by spot ZCash (ZEC) holdings.
ZCash (ZEC) even replaced Monero (XMR) as the largest privacy coin. However, this week, Monero's (XMR) market cap hit $7.6 billion, while ZCash (ZEC) dropped to $7.2 billion. Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) are the 26th and 26th biggest cryptocurrencies, respectively.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team