Author: Glassnode
Compiled by Chopper, Foresight News
Bitcoin is down 36% from its historical high in October 2025, marking 335 days since. The median price of the top 200 crypto assets by market cap has retraced 58% from their highs.
However, one sector defied the trend and reached a new high: the privacy coin sector, with an overall gain of 213%.
The only sector to outperform its historical high
All other sectors remain below their previous highs: the DeFi sector declined by 27%, while the gaming sector dropped as much as 74%. Over the past 30 days, all ten sectors experienced a rebound, with the privacy sector leading the rally, rising 90% within the month. This one-month broad rally has not altered the market’s divergence: only the privacy coin sector has reached a new high, while all other sectors remain below their previous peaks.
A $34 billion market segment
One year ago, the total market capitalization of privacy coins in the top 200 was $7.1 billion; today, it has reached $33.6 billion, approaching the total market cap of TRON, with nearly half of this growth occurring in the past 30 days. ZEC (Zcash) accounted for the majority of the increase, rising from rank #82 to #7; during the same period, XMR (Monero) doubled its market cap.
Not a solo performance by a single coin
Over the past year, ZEC has surged by 2,496%, accounting for 62% of the total market capitalization of the privacy sector and holding absolute dominance in the sector index.
However, this market rally was not driven by a single cryptocurrency. All eight privacy coins that have been listed for a full year have risen in value; in contrast, only one-eighth of the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market cap recorded gains. Excluding ZEC, the market-cap-weighted privacy coin portfolio still gained 85% year-to-date and rose 56% since Bitcoin’s peak last October. Over the past 90 days, DASH, XMR, and ZEN all outperformed Bitcoin.
Which other assets have generated positive returns?
Among the top 25 assets by market capitalization, only four have prices above their highs from October 6 last year: ZEC, HYPE, XMR, and WBT, two of which are privacy coins.
HYPE represents an independent price movement; excluding HYPE, the DeFi sector has declined 46% year-to-date. Major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Dogecoin remain below their previous highs.
Market divergence and broad-based price increase range
Of the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market cap, 91.5% experienced price increases over the past 30 days—the broadest rally in this metric in a single month. However, on an annual basis, only 25 cryptocurrencies posted gains, with the median coin declining by 55%.
The 30-day return dispersion of the top ten sector indices has reached its highest level since November 20, 2025.
In summary, the market experienced a broad rebound over the past month, but the profit potential for the year remains highly concentrated in a single sector: privacy coins.