the slight recovery of DASH (Dash) and ZEC (Zcash) is not coincidental but part of a larger story about the "revival" of the Privacy Coin sector that began at the end of 2025.
Here are the specific reasons:
1. Why did Zec (Zcash) increase slightly today?
Zcash has been receiving more attention than Dash recently.
* Legal "Escape" Effect: The biggest driver helping ZEC maintain its price and recover is news from mid-January 2026 that the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) has closed its investigation with the Zcash Foundation without filing any charges. This has alleviated the "death sentence" (being considered a security) that weighed on ZEC throughout 2024-2025.
* Development funding (Grant): The fact that Winklevoss Capital (the fund of the billionaire Gemini twins) has just funded 1.4 million USD for Shielded Labs to develop a new Zcash protocol has instilled confidence that this project is still strongly supported by major players in the U.S.
* Shift to Proof-of-Stake (Crosslink): Investors are accumulating in anticipation of the "Crosslink" update, marking Zcash's transition to a hybrid mechanism (Hybrid PoW/PoS), helping to reduce token inflation and increase security.
2. Why did Dash (Dash) increase slightly today?
Unlike Zcash (increased due to macro/legal news), Dash's increase is due to the intrinsic product:
* Dash Evolution (Platform) goes live: After many years of delays, the Dash Evolution platform (officially launched at the end of 2025) is starting to gather real user data. Allowing the creation of usernames and dApps (decentralized applications) directly on the Dash chain has helped it shed the label of "just a payment coin" to become a Web3 platform.
* Payments: In the context of high inflation in some countries at the beginning of 2026, Dash continues to be widely used in Latin America as an alternative payment method, keeping the organic demand stable.
