Privacy Coins Dominate Top Crypto Gainers Amid Market Rotation

Key Insights

• Privacy tokens featured among the top crypto gainers today despite weak broader market conditions.
• The privacy narrative turned out to be the strongest one, led by ZEC, XMR, and DASH.
• The price action of ZEC eyes $700, while XMR targets $500+, and DASH remains trading sideways under the $48 resistance.

As the crypto market struggled through last year, some narratives were doing well. To be specific, privacy coins outperformed the market when examining those with a cap of more than $500 million.

This trend was an indication of market rotation from usual majors like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). But will this performance by this sector prevail?

To begin with, ZCash (ZEC) experienced the largest growth, at approximately 861%, with a market capitalization of $8.7 billion. Monero (XMR) went up 123% to $8 billion, and Dash went up 12% to $0.53 billion.

These coins performed better than the market as a whole, where Bitcoin experienced a slight increase, but privacy concerns surrounding transactions were on the rise. ZEC surged from its lows, while XMR maintained its strength, albeit Zcash outpaced it in market capitalization.

The strength of this sector suggested that traders sought anonymity. Bulls believed that tech adoption would continue in 2026, potentially leading to further gains.

Bears, on the other hand, pointed to regulatory risks like delistings that could limit upside. Additionally, policies around the world may also impact the outcomes. However, there was cautious optimism.

ZEC price dropped, but it stabilized around $651.92. A rising trendline from the lows in December, which were around $350, supported the structure. It touched key points at $480 in early January and looked headed toward $720.

ZEC recently shot up from $480 to $680 before falling back down. This occurred at the same time that OBV stabilized at $1.41 million, indicating that people were buying more.

The setup looked like previous bounces with entries around $500 and $480. A breakout could aim for $720 if the privacy narrative stayed strong.

On the other hand, if it failed below $600, it could risk a retest of $500. Still, market sentiment was split between a possible rally and macro pressures.

The daily timeframe’s rising trendline showed that XMR was still making a clear series of higher lows. After a strong rise, the price held steady near the mid-$430 level. This meant the market was taking a break instead of continuing to decline.

However, the momentum indicators were not all the same. The MACD was still positive, but the histogram turned slightly negative. This meant that the upward momentum was weakening in the short term.

Simultaneously, the CVD showed a slight negative trend, indicating ongoing pressure to sell.

A sustained move above recent highs could indicate that the trend is likely to continue. Conversely, a breakdown below the trendline support would go against the bullish structure.

Winding up, Dash (DASH) was still moving sideways below the $48 resistance level on the daily chart. This was after a sharp 80% drop from the September 2025 highs of about $140 to the December lows of $29.

The price was stuck between $33 and $37, which was the key support zone. The descending trendline had resisted the price from going up.

RSI dropped to about 25, which was oversold, and was stable above its MA at about 40, which suggested a change in momentum.

The most recent reaction showed that things were settling down after the dump, with a few small green candles appearing. If the RSI bounces back, it could go up to $50–60. If it breaks below $33, it could drop to the $20s due to low volume.

Privacy-focused assets continued to rank among the top crypto gainers today, but regulatory and macro risks still framed price action.

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