Three hundred and thirty-five days after the October 2025 peak, Bitcoin is still trading 36% below its record. For most altcoins, the bill is much higher. Of the 200 largest assets excluding stablecoins, the median asset has lost 58% since this same peak. Only one sector is an exception to the rule, and it is neither artificial intelligence nor memecoins. Anonymous cryptos, driven by Zcash, have shown positive performance since this peak. A figure that deserves a closer look.
The data published by Glassnode on September 7 is final. Out of ten sectors monitored by the on-chain analysis platform, nine have shown a loss since the peak of October 6, 2025: DeFi lost 27%, exchanges 36%, layer 1 40%, AI 42%, real world assets (RWA) 57%. Only one climbs, anonymous cryptos (privacy coins), at +213%.
It’s not the market that’s rebounding. It’s a sector that masks everything else. Over the last 30 days, all ten sectors have progressed, with privacy leading the way with +90%. But this recent improvement does not change anything in the photo of the year. Only 25 assets out of 200 have shown a gain since January, and the median asset has lost 55% over this period.
ZEC alone accounts for 62% of the privacy sector
This is where the story gets complicated. The cumulative capitalization of anonymous cryptos increased from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion today, according to the same Glassnode report, roughly the capitalization of Tron. Nearly half of this increase occurred in the last thirty days.
Zcash is the main driver. The token went from 82nd to 7th in the world by capitalization, with an increase of 2,496% since January. It alone represents 62% of the sector's weight. Monero (XMR) has doubled over the same period, and three anonymous cryptos (DASH, XMR, ZEN) have outperformed Bitcoin over the last 90 days. But remove Zcash from the calculation, and the cap-weighted basket of anonymous cryptos is only up 85% since January. Solid, but much less spectacular.
David Hoffman tested diversification, not all-ZEC
A man made this bet on privacy publicly long before Glassnode documented it. In May, David Hoffman, co-founder of the Bankless media (historic reference in the Ethereum ecosystem), sold his entire position in ETH to distribute it across five tokens: VVV, NEAR, ZEC, HYPE, and especially LIT, on which he placed half the amount.
The release earned him a barrage of criticism. A co-founder of a pro-Ethereum media outlet who sells all his ETH, the image does not go unnoticed. Three months later, the results compiled by DeFi analyst Ignas speak for themselves. LIT gains 369%, ZEC 110%, NEAR 54%, when ETH kept for comparison only increases by 8%. Only VVV, at -6%, breaks the picture.
The detail matters as much as the result. Hoffman has not bet everything on Zcash, contrary to what the performance of the sector might lead one to believe if they only look at the overall figure. He spread his bet across five lines, and it was LIT, not ZEC, that performed best at home. The lesson is not that you had to guess the right token. It was necessary to move away from just one, ETH, to no longer depend on a single story.
