A standout performer, privacy coins become the biggest winners in the crypto market this year

Over the past month, the market has seen a broad-based rally, but on a yearly scale, profit opportunities have been highly concentrated in the privacy sector.

Written by: glassnode

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Bitcoin has dropped 36% from its all-time high in October 2025, and 335 days have passed since then. Among the top 200 crypto assets by market capitalization, the median price has pulled back 58% from the highs.

However, there is one sector that has bucked the trend and reached new highs: the privacy coin sector, with an overall gain of 213%.

The Only Sector Surpassing Historical Highs

All other sectors remain below previous peaks: the DeFi sector is down 27%, and the gaming sector has fallen by as much as 74%. Over the past 30 days, all top ten sectors have rebounded, with the privacy sector also leading this rally, rising 90% in the last 30 days. The month-long broad-based rally has not changed the market's divergent pattern: only the privacy coin sector has set new highs, while all other sectors remain below their peaks.

A $34 Billion Sector

A year ago, the total market capitalization of privacy coins within the top 200 was $710 million; it has now reached $3.36 billion, approaching the total market capitalization of TRON, with nearly half of this increase coming in the last 30 days. ZEC (Zcash) contributed the majority of the gains, with its market cap ranking soaring from 82nd to 7th; during the same period, XMR (Monero) saw its market cap double.

Not a Solo Coin Rally

Over the past year, ZEC has surged by as much as 2,496%, accounting for 62% of the privacy sector's total market capitalization and holding an absolutely dominant position in the sector index.

But this rally hasn't been driven by a single coin. All eight privacy coins that have been listed for at least a year have posted gains; in contrast, among the top 200 coins by market capitalization, only one eighth have recorded gains. If you exclude ZEC, a market-cap-weighted privacy coin portfolio has still risen 85% year-to-date, up 56% since Bitcoin’s October high last year. In the past 90 days, DASH, XMR, and ZEN have all outperformed Bitcoin.

Which Other Assets Have Yielded Positive Returns?

Among the top 25 assets by market capitalization, only four have prices above the high set on October 6 last year: ZEC, HYPE, XMR, and WBT, with two belonging to the privacy coin sector.

HYPE is driven by an independent narrative; if you exclude HYPE, the DeFi sector as a whole is down 46% year-to-date. Mainstream coins like Ethereum and Dogecoin are still below previous highs.

Divergence and the Breadth of the Rally

Among the top 200 coins by market capitalization, 91.5% have posted gains over the last 30 days, making it the broadest month of gains under this metric. However, on an annual basis, only 25 coins have risen, with the median coin dropping 55%.

The 30-day dispersion in the returns of the top ten sector indexes has reached its highest level since November 20, 2025.

In summary, the past month has seen a broad market rebound, but on a yearly scale, profit opportunities have been highly concentrated in a single sector: privacy coins.