The privacy-focused crypto asset zcash (ZEC) has retreated sharply from its peak just above $741 on Nov. 15, sliding to a low of $411 as of Tuesday, Dec. 16. Meanwhile, ZEC rival monero ( XMR) has continued to push higher, advancing more than 15% over the past seven days.
Privacy Coin Shakeout Leaves Zcash Reeling and Monero Standing Tall
ZEC is down 44.54% since touching $741 against the U.S. dollar on Bitfinex roughly 31 days ago. The privacy-enhanced cryptocurrency is lower by 3.1% this week and has trimmed about 1.4% over the past day. While ZEC digests its dramatic run-up and subsequent pullback, it still boasts a 626% gain from its price level on Dec. 16, 2024.
Privacy coins as a category, based on coingecko.com’s aggregated sector data, carry a combined valuation of $17.35 billion. ZEC stands as the second-largest privacy coin by market cap, with its current $6.76 billion valuation representing 38.97% of the sector’s total value. Monero ( XMR) now commands the top spot by market cap after recently reclaiming the first place position from zcash.
XMR’s market behavior has followed a distinctly different path, rising 3.2% today and posting a 15.4% gain over the past week. In November, it reached $437 per coin and is currently trading at $426. While XMR has led recent gains, the 12-month comparison still favors ZEC, whose 626% advance since Dec. 16, 2024, far exceeds XMR’s 102% increase over the same period.
Even as the broader crypto economy has moved lower, XMR’s price has held relatively steady without experiencing a pronounced drop. The coin remains about 21% below its early 2018 level, when it peaked near $542 almost eight years ago. Another privacy coin drawing attention this week was beldex (BDX), which notched a gain of roughly 5.9% over the seven-day span.
The remainder of the top privacy coins by market cap posted double-digit losses, many steeper than ZEC’s decline. DASH fell 14.4% this week, DCR dropped 18.8%, and MWC recorded an even sharper slide of 20.5%. Zano (ZANO) declined 10.5%, horizen (ZEN) sank 18.8%, and verge (XVG) is down 15.4% over the past seven days against the greenback.
Taken together, the divergence between ZEC and XMR highlights a clear split within the privacy-coin segment, where recent momentum and longer-term performance are telling different stories. ZEC remains weighed down by its steep pullback despite its outsized gains over the past year, while XMR continues to benefit from steadier price behavior amid broader market pressure.
As losses ripple through much of the privacy-coin cohort, the divide between near-term stability and longer-horizon performance has grown harder to overlook. While ZEC commanded much of the attention last month, XMR has since claimed that focus and pressed ahead. How long these patterns persist remains an open question, as December’s crypto market has delivered little beyond constant surprises.
