Crypto’s Anti-Surveillance Boom: Zcash, Monero and the Return of Anonymity
In the second half of 2025, privacy coins like Zcash and Monero have outperformed amid a struggling wider cryptocurrency market. Zcash has led the resurgence due to innovations like wallets that prioritize default privacy and an expanding shielded pool, making private transactions the norm. The privacy-focused coins have seen major price rallies despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, signaling a shift away from institutional packaging like ETFs toward the original ideals of individual liberty and financial privacy. The technological maturity of Zcash allows for privacy without trade-offs, contrasting with regulatory challenges faced by other privacy projects like Tornado Cash. This broader trend reflects growing interest in anonymous, digital cash as a hedge against surveillance and institutional control, aligning with the foundational cypherpunk principles of the crypto industry.
Layer-1
Privacy
SEC Alleged Securities
Zcash Resurgence and the Privacy Renaissance
In the second half of 2025, privacy coins have emerged as market leaders, surpassing the broader crypto space, which stagnates with ETF flows, basis trades, and macro beta trends. Zcash’s resurgence, supported by wallets that prioritize privacy by default and a shift in power against its long-standing rival Monero, marks the culmination of a full circle for the industry. From the early cypherpunk ideals of permissionless, untraceable cash, to the dominated ETF-soaked markets, and now back to a form of digital cash resisting traceability, privacy coins are redefining crypto’s future.
Privacy Adoption: Zashi and Shielded Transactions
CoinDesk Research highlights this shift with a detailed analysis of Zcash. Remarkably, shielded adoption has increased dramatically, accounting for 20% of its supply, and 30% of transactions now interact with the shielded pool. Innovations such as Zashi, a first-party wallet that enforces "shield before spend" as a default, simplify user experience and treat privacy not as an advanced option, but as a baseline expectation for financial transactions. This evolution has yielded an expanding anonymity set and an intuitive user experience where privacy is seamlessly integrated.
Market Sentiments and Performance Metrics
Market price trends underscore this shift: Zcash (ZEC) has surged 741%, reaching $477.60 since September 28, while Monero (XMR) climbed 54%, achieving $352.71 since August. Other long-dormant privacy coins such as Decred (DCR) and Dash (DASH) have gained 145% and 337%, respectively, in recent weeks. These rallies occur despite a bleak macro backdrop where Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have dropped to multi-month lows, as traders return to the perceived safety of a stronger U.S. dollar. Privacy coins, however, remain unique, signaling that investors are choosing privacy over yield.
From Institutions to Individuals: A Paradigm Shift
The crypto industry has experienced a dramatic reversal. While the last two years focused on ETFs, custodians, and corporate compliance, privacy coins now thrive as tools for individuals, diverging from institutional trends. To early cypherpunks, privacy was not a marketing strategy but a pillar of financial freedom. With the rise of AI surveillance and pervasive data collection, privacy is being redefined as self-protection, rather than secrecy. Zcash, leveraging zero-knowledge proofs, allows users to verify transactions securely without exposing them, offering speedy settlements and selective data-sharing features that establish privacy as a default standard.
The Tornado Cash Case and Regulatory Concerns
The resurgence of privacy coins is not free of regulatory hurdles. The Tornado Cash case serves as a stark cautionary tale. In August, Roman Storm, one of Tornado Cash’s co-founders, was convicted of running an unlicensed money-transmitting business but escaped money-laundering charges. Meanwhile, developer Alexey Pertsev faces a five-year prison sentence in the Netherlands for related offenses. However, there are emerging signals of change: in March, the U.S. Treasury removed Tornado Cash from its sanctions list, either acknowledging the complex legal issues of blockchain or reconsidering blanket sanctions. This contrasts with Zcash, whose architectural difference as a full blockchain with built-in privacy makes it more resilient to regulatory actions.
Rediscovering Digital Cash
Bitcoin demonstrated that money can exist without banks, and now privacy coins prove finance can thrive without surveillance. Analytics reveal Zcash’s shielded pool has grown to 25–30% of circulating supply, marking its highest share since inception. Privacy coins like Zcash and Monero are seeing increased real-world usage, showcasing a return to cash-like functionality: immediate, permissionless, and difficult to track. On-chain metrics confirm users are actively shifting funds into encrypted channels, moving away from public ledgers.
A Return to Crypto’s Roots
The privacy coin rally is about more than speculation; it reflects a return to crypto’s foundational ideals. With Bitcoin showing borderless transactions and Ethereum running finance without intermediaries, Zcash is now spotlighting financial privacy as a key component of the ecosystem. After years of institutional products like ETFs and derivatives, the industry is swinging back towards its roots: individual liberty and the right to transact without oversight. Whether this trend will persist under regulatory scrutiny remains uncertain, but the market has firmly embraced tools resembling cash-like functionality as the leading narrative of 2025.