Privacy coins are trending as Monero and Dash gain more than 50% in a week

Privacy coins seem to be incredibly popular this year, with phenomenal gains of 50% (for Monero) to as much as 100% (for Dash) in just one week. Techies like Arthur Hayes and Marc Andreessen predicted this trend would happen months ago, and their investments look set to pay off in 2026 (Hayes leaned more towards ZCash, but still).

ZCash

Privacy coins have been part of the crypto market for a very long time. Due to their complete anonymity during trading, they were repeatedly linked to criminal activity in the past.

At some point, many of these projects faded into the background. Interest waned, and the privacy coin sector became very quiet.

That changed in the fall of 2025, when Zcash surprised the market and, out of nowhere, posted a 500% gain in just a few months.

Now, attention has shifted to Monero. For many traders, the situation feels familiar. The setup resembles what happened with Zcash in recent months. The main difference is that ZEC failed to stay above the magical $1,000 mark. The question is whether XMR will do better this time round.

Dash is also on the rise, having already increased by over 100% in a week. Lower down in the CoinMarketCap rankings, we also find the privacy coin Decred, which rose by 65%. Is this a phenomenon that will last just a few days, or will it become a trend that will last for months?