Grayscale Reveals Real Reason ZEC Pumped in 2025

Zcash (ZEC) has been quiet for years but suddenly stole the crypto show in Q4 2025 despite the general bearish trend that hit the market. There was no clear reason for the exclusive rally at the time, but Grayscale Research now has an explanation.

In its quarterly crypto research report, the crypto giant said ZEC, being the top privacy coin, rallied hard due to a preference for privacy in the quarter. ZEC rallied starting from under $100 in October to reach over $600 in mid November before correcting. This was the first significant price movement of the coin since 2018, and it still retains some of the gains.

Interest in Privacy Coins Explained

Q4 2025 was one of the most difficult periods in the history of cryptocurrencies. In fact, the year is said to be the first post halving year to close in red. Despite this, ZEC rallied by over 800% between October and November, with Monero (XMR) extending into December. Grayscale says this was the result of a sudden surge in interest for privacy coins, but why?

Cryptocurrencies became attractive to many people initially because they thought they were private. While this is true in the sense that you can’t put a name on any transaction, blockchains are by default transparent. This was okay until now that deep blockchain integration is becoming important in financial systems where privacy is crucial. The report explains the bias for privacy coins thus:

“The rising focus on privacy led to outperformance of crypto assets with these features in Q4, especially Zcash. Zcash is a decentralized digital currency like Bitcoin but incorporates optional privacy features through “shielded” accounts and transactions. Shielded balances increased during 2025 as a share of token Zcash supply, indicating rising demand for the protocol’s privacy-preserving features.”

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Apart from ZEC, other privacy-focused coins such as Monero (XMR), Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH) and others also rallied significantly last year, indicating the high demand for these coins.

Privacy Coins May Lead in 2026

As blockchain integration into different sectors grows, the demand for privacy coins is likely to increase by default in 2026. As a result, these privacy coins may still see higher rallies in the new year which would be an edge.

Already, analysts expect altcoins to soon break their downward trend and start a fresh rally . With the added momentum of exceptional demand, privacy coins may still lead the market going into the new year.

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