Zcash is skyrocketing.

One of crypto’s oldest privacy coins has surged over 1,000% this year to over $440 this past weekend as investors bet on privacy. It currently trades as the 33rd most valuable cryptocurrency in the world.

Zcash’s surging value “reflects a renewed interest in privacy,” Spencer Yang, managing partner at crypto-native advisory firm BlockSpaceForce, told DL News.

The new peak comes as the Electric Coin Company, the developers behind Zcash, announced an updated roadmap on October 31. The roadmap includes long-term funding and new privacy tools.

And it’s not just Zcash that’s cashing in. Monero is up over 120% this year while Dash is up nearly 300%.

Railgun, an Ethereum privacy tool recently mentioned in the Ethereum Foundation’s institutional launch note on X, is also up over 300%.

Why Zcash?

But Zcash is the standout winner so far this year.

One reason for that is its opt-in privacy features, which “fit better than Monero with the current regulatory environment for privacy-based tokens,” Yang said.

“Zcash has also benefitted from promoters like Arthur Hayes, Mert Mumtaz, and Naval Ravikant openly coming out in its favour, whereas Monero hasn’t had that kind of attention,” he added.

In October, former BitMEX chief Arthur Hayes predicted Zcash will hit $10,000 in a viral post on X. He didn’t provide any further details on why he made that prediction and within what time-frames he was expecting Zcash to hit a milestone that even Ethereum, the world’s second biggest cryptocurrency, has yet to hit.

Popular YouTuber Mario Nawfal said that privacy projects “are making noise again” with “Monero, Zcash, and other privacy-focused tokens” in the spotlight.

Still, social media influencers are not the only ones plugged into the privacy trend.

In venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz’s State of Crypto report, released in October, analysts said that the demand for privacy “is more urgent than ever” highlighting record figures for Zcash and Railgun.

Privacy narrative

A16z cited multiple notable privacy milestones in 2025, including the Ethereum Foundation’s launch of a new 47-member “Privacy Cluster,” Zcash’s new Zashi wallet, and an uptick in the usage of privacy programming language Noir.

“Privacy is returning to the foreground and could be a prerequisite for wider adoption,” the report said.

“Google searches related to crypto privacy surged in 2025; Zcash’s shielded pool supply grew to nearly 4 million ZEC ($408.72); and Railgun’s transaction flows surpassed $200 million monthly,” it stressed.

“Why are you not putting more money into privacy protocols?” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin asked an audience during a session at the Web3Privacy Now meetup in Tokyo in September.

Under siege

To be sure, the waters are not entirely blue.

Zcash has lost some 15% of its value after reaching its all-time high market capitalisation this weekend and is worth $386 at the time of writing.

In 2024, the European Parliament voted through a bill that will ban listing tokens like Zcash and Monero. The argument was that the EU wanted to fight financial crimes such as money-laundering.

In response, crypto exchanges like Kraken and Binance have either delisted or considered delisting privacy coins in the EU.

The new EU rules are set to snap into action in 2027.

Looking beyond privacy coins, the same bill also sought to ban privacy mixers like Tornado Cash and to scale the policing of crypto transactions.

It’s clear that privacy-linked crypto projects are also under pressure around the world.

A Dutch court convicted Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev of money laundering in 2024. Across the Atlantic, his fellow co-founder Roman Storm was convicted in the US in August of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Both of them have appealed their verdicts.

The founders of a similar service, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill of Samourai Wallet, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business in August.

Even so, the US Department of Justice has said it intends to reject similar charges going forward.

Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of Solana-infrastructure platform Helius Labs, and prominent promoter of Zcash, cited overzealous regulators as the best argument for privacy.

“The European Central Bank is working on the idea of ‘holding limits’ for ‘your’ money,” Mumtaz said on X. “They are going to control every aspect of your life soon. They think they own you. Use Bitcoin, use Zcash, use crypto. Reject these clowns.”

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.