Privacy coins are suddenly back in the game this week, shrugging off the slump that’s dragging down most of the crypto market.
After months of quiet buildup, these top 5 altcoin’s prices are finally breaking out.
While most cryptocurrencies are struggling to stay afloat, privacy-focused tokens are sprinting ahead and stealing the spotlight. So far, they’ve rewritten their history this week.
Zcash – The Best Performing Privacy Coin
Zcash is on a tear this week, breaking away from a sluggish crypto market and turning heads across the industry.
The token’s market cap has climbed by about 60% in just seven days, with the price reaching $632.
The rally was strong enough to overtake Monero, making Zcash the biggest privacy coin by market value.
The jump didn’t happen by chance. Early this month, Zcash’s developer, the Electric Coin Company, rolled out a major update that brought cross-chain swaps and private payments to the network.
The move came through an integration with the transaction layer Near Intents, opening up new ways for users to trade and send funds discreetly.
Almost immediately, activity on Near Intents spiked. Zcash’s “shielded pool” — the system that holds encrypted addresses — grew as more users began moving coins into private storage.
Thanks to its latest upgrade and a burst of trader interest, Zcash is suddenly back in the spotlight.
Monero
Monero held its ground this week even as competition in the privacy coin space continued to heat up with various analysts claiming the Zcash rally was meant for Monero.
The privacy coin’s price climbed nearly 25.8% over the past seven days, which pushed the market capitalization to $8.1 billion.
While the rise was more modest than Zcash’s recent surge, it marked a clear show of resilience for the long-time privacy leader.
Earlier in October, the Monero network rolled out its latest upgrade, known as Fluorine Fermi.
The update is designed to strengthen user protection against so-called “spy nodes” — malicious operators or botnets that try to trace transactions and link them to specific addresses.
Privacy and security have always been at the heart of Monero — and they still are, even as pressure from regulators and exchanges continues to build.
Growing scrutiny, delistings, and advances in blockchain tracing tools have made life tougher for privacy coins in general.
Instead of retreating, Monero’s developers have been busy strengthening the project’s privacy layers and releasing steady improvements Late last year, the Monero Research Lab proposed a new measure allowing node operators to maintain a ban list of suspicious nodes flagged by their IP addresses.
Together, these moves underscore the project’s ongoing push to keep its network as private and secure as possible — even in an increasingly hostile environment for digital anonymity.
Dash Coin
Dash coin has roared back to life this week, climbing to $107. It’s the first time the token has cleared the $100 level in months and easily one of the strongest moves in the market right now.
The breakout came right after the launch of Dash perpetual futures on Aster DEX on November 2, offering up to 5x leverage.
That listing brought a wave of new liquidity and traders looking for volatility, giving Dash a clear jolt of energy.
The rally also ties into a broader revival of privacy coins. With investors rotating back toward assets that prize anonymity and decentralization, Dash suddenly finds itself back in focus after a long, quiet stretch.
ZKSync Privacy Coin
ZKsync has been on a tear this week, with its token surging 13% to about $0.063. The rally kicked off in early November and hasn’t lost steam, putting ZKsync among the top performers across both privacy and Layer 2 sectors.
As an Ethereum Layer 2, ZKsync relies on zero-knowledge rollups to handle transactions off-chain, cutting costs and speeding things up.
Now, the project seems to be moving into a new chapter — its developers are reworking the governance token and rethinking how value circulates through the network.
Co-founder Alex Gluchowski said this week that ZKsync has grown well beyond its original framework, now connecting several interlinked zero-knowledge chains that together form a broader ecosystem.
He outlined a plan to tie the token’s value more closely to real network activity and economic output.
The proposed changes would allow the token to draw on-chain value from fees tied to interoperability, settlements, and messaging.
Off-chain, additional value could come through licensing agreements for enterprise software and large-scale integrations.
Gluchowski emphasized that as major enterprises begin adopting these capabilities, it’s fair for the network’s ecosystem to share in the economic returns.
This proposal might be a turning point for ZKsync, signaling a move beyond speed into something built to last.
Decred Privacy Coin
Decred rallied close to 92% this week, ending near $35 after a sharp early-week surge. The move marks its strongest performance in months and hints at renewed market interest.
For the past two years, Decred had traded in a tight range, showing little movement. That changed abruptly as privacy-related tokens began surging across the market, pushing Decred into the spotlight once again.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2025/11/09/top-5-privacy-coins-to-watch-this-week/


