Privacy coins have taken center stage in the crypto sector throughout late 2025. Leading assets like Zcash (ZEC) have managed to outperform the market, resisting major drawdowns even as most cryptocurrencies continue to bleed.
BeInCrypto spoke to several experts to understand why privacy coins are surging now and whether it is possible to identify the next major crypto opportunity before it becomes mainstream.
Privacy Coins Maintain Lead as the Market’s Best-Performing Sector
BeInCrypto reported a month ago that privacy-centric cryptocurrencies had emerged as the best-performing sector in the market. Notably, this still holds true today, even as the broader market extends its two-month slump.
Privacy coins have surged 276.4% year-to-date, making them the strongest and one of only two sectors showing positive returns this year.
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Crypto Sector’s Performance. Source: ArtemisBy contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have both turned negative due to their recent drawdowns. Notably, since early October, the value of ZEC has appreciated by over 700%. DASH (DASH) has also experienced a nearly 200% uptick, indicating strong momentum.
What’s Driving The Privacy Coin Rally in 2025?
According to Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and co-founder of The Coin Bureau, the rally is closely tied to a sharp rise in global surveillance and capital controls.
He pointed to examples such as Turkey granting its financial watchdog broader powers to freeze crypto accounts. Furthermore, regulators worldwide are tightening oversight of digital assets.
Puckrin explains that Bitcoin and Ethereum no longer embody the original “cypherpunk” ideals of privacy and censorship resistance. Instead, they have become highly traceable.
They are even easier to monitor than cash, driving renewed interest in cryptocurrencies that offer stronger privacy protections.
Jamie Elkaleh, CMO of Bitget Wallet, shares a similar view. He suggested that as regulatory clarity improves and institutional adoption accelerates, users are becoming increasingly uneasy about AI-driven surveillance and the pervasive transparency of on-chain activity.
Elkaleh stressed that this tension is reshaping expectations across the industry. Clearer rules are attracting more mainstream participants to the market, but these users are arriving with a different set of demands.
Meanwhile, Ray Youssef, founder and CEO of NoOnes, attributes the breakout in privacy coins to a combination of narrative rotation and macroeconomic tailwinds.
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He observed that, after years marked by the institutionalization of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as meme-driven altcoin cycles, capital is now flowing into assets perceived as “crypto by design,” with decentralization and user-controlled privacy at their core.
Youssef added that institutional participation in crypto continues to increase. Thus, many retail traders and crypto-native users are seeking projects that restore a sense of autonomy and privacy.
Still, he stressed that this shift is not an outright rejection of institutional capital. Rather, both forces can coexist and reinforce each other when a compelling narrative gains momentum.
Rob Viglione, Founder of zkVerify and CEO of Horizen Labs, emphasized that the renewed interest reflects a broader market shift. He noted that users are increasingly recognizing privacy as a core requirement for real-world usage rather than a niche feature.
He explained that the current momentum goes beyond isolated token rallies. It signals a deeper reevaluation of how privacy should function across the entire crypto stack.
What differentiates the setup today is that privacy is now being integrated directly into Ethereum-based environments. Developers are no longer pursuing standalone privacy chains.
Instead, they are seeking privacy solutions that plug into existing ecosystems where liquidity, users, and applications already operate.
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Is Utility Becoming Crypto’s Next Meme-Level Trend?
The surge in privacy-focused assets has also revived another question: is this just another short-term pump cycle, akin to past meme coin rallies, or does it reflect a genuine shift toward utility-driven narratives? Analysts suggest the answer may lie somewhere in between.
Youssef stated that meme coin rallies tend to be rapid, highly speculative, and short-lived, often burning out quickly. Once that momentum fades, the market typically rotates toward narratives with more durable value.
This includes areas such as payments, privacy, real-world transaction layers, DeFi infrastructure, and more. In this context, privacy tokens are attracting renewed interest because they offer clear autonomy, protection from censorship, and the ability to transact without exposure or the risk of unilateral freezes. He shared that,
Puckrin detailed that meme coins generally thrive during periods of market euphoria. Meanwhile, utility-driven tokens tend to perform better when investors are more cautious or looking to reposition profits.
How To Spot the Next Big Crypto Narrative
As new narratives emerge faster than ever, identifying an early breakout trend has become one of the biggest challenges and opportunities for crypto investors. Puckrin explained that,
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Nonetheless, the analyst outlined institutional investment trends as a good starting point for evaluating any sector.
Youssef took a more structured view, framing the process as “pattern recognition with signal triangulation.” He outlined key signals, including real user demand, on-chain activity, protocol feature usage, and expanding market access.
The executive also revealed that regulatory sentiment plays a crucial role. New narratives gain traction far more easily when the environment is favorable. Finally, capital flows, whether from retail traders, whales, or institutional allocators, could also be a signal.
Lastly, Elkaleh believes that identifying emerging metas starts with tracking early indicators, such as developer activity, new exchange listings, and social momentum on platforms like X. Low-cap tokens with solid fundamentals often provide the earliest signs of narrative formation.
He asserted that investors who blend behavioral signals with fundamental analysis gain the clearest view of where traction is building before it becomes visible to the broader market. Elkaleh specified that,
While these indicators don’t guarantee success, they offer a useful framework for spotting early momentum. When user demand, developer activity, regulation, and capital flows begin to align, a new narrative may be forming, long before it becomes mainstream.
Source: https://beincrypto.com/spot-next-crypto-narrative-privacy-coin-boom/
