Monero vs Zcash: Is the Privacy-Coin Rotation Real?

Monero has beaten Bitcoin over the past week, but that doesn’t mean privacy coins are moving together—or that investors have demonstrably sold BTC to buy them. In the latest accessible market readings, XMR’s seven-day gain is substantial, Zcash’s edge over Bitcoin is slim, and their 24-hour returns both lag BTC. I see selective strength and meaningful speculative risk, not yet a proven sector-wide rotation.

Data note: I checked USD-denominated CoinPaprika market records on October 23, using a research cutoff of 09:25 UTC. Their underlying last_updated times range from 09:01:18 to 09:24:12 UTC, so the rolling returns below are near-time comparisons, not mathematically synchronized same-second observations. The provider’s 30-day change fields were zero for all five assets, which I could not validate as genuine returns; I therefore mark them unavailable. Trading-volume figures are provider-reported rolling 24-hour totals, not verified spot-only volumes. These gaps matter when interpreting small differences.

What Monero, Zcash and Bitcoin prices actually show

Here is the comparison I would start with, before reaching for a bigger market narrative:

Asset	24-hour USD return	7-day USD return	30-day return	7-day return vs. BTC	Reported 24-hour trading volume
Bitcoin (BTC)	-0.26%	-0.12%	Unavailable	Benchmark	$20.27bn
Ether (ETH)	-0.16%	-1.61%	Unavailable	-1.49%	$8.77bn
Monero (XMR)	-5.64%	+9.31%	Unavailable	+9.44%	$230.34m
Zcash (ZEC)	-1.87%	+0.42%	Unavailable	+0.54%	$878.54m
Dash (DASH)	+6.39%	+8.53%	Unavailable	+8.66%	$105.75m

Source: CoinPaprika BTC, ETH, XMR, ZEC and DASH ticker records. UTC source-update times: BTC 09:10:14; ETH 09:11:13; XMR 09:01:18; ZEC 09:15:12; DASH 09:24:12. Values are rounded; 7-day BTC-relative figures are indicative because these source updates are not simultaneous. Volume coverage and wash-trading adjustments were not independently audited.

Over seven days, all three privacy-related assets in this predefined three-coin sample beat a slightly negative Bitcoin return. But the spread is the story: XMR is up 9.31%, DASH 8.53%, and ZEC just 0.42%. A gain of less than half a percent over a week is not equivalent to Monero’s much more pronounced advance. And in the latest 24-hour readings, both XMR and ZEC lost more in dollars than Bitcoin, while DASH rose.

I calculate the BTC-relative figures as (1 + an asset’s USD return) / (1 + BTC’s USD return) – 1. That is different from simply subtracting percentage points. For example, XMR’s indicative seven-day return relative to BTC is about +9.44%; its 24-hour relative performance is about -5.39%. A coin can also outperform Bitcoin while losing dollars if BTC falls faster. None of these returns identifies where anyone’s capital came from.

The point is not that the October 21 headlines were wrong. They reported a different market moment: CoinDesk described ZEC rising roughly 11% while Bitcoin was also recovering. That historical observation should not be blended with October 23 rolling returns—or with today’s live price widgets on older articles—to suggest a continuous, synchronized rally.

Is this a privacy sector move or separate rallies?

I use rotation carefully because it can mean four different things. Relative strength means beating a benchmark over a defined interval. Sector breadth means multiple relevant assets doing so together. Sustained participation would require persistent spot demand across venues and timeframes. Direct capital rotation would require evidence that investors reduced an existing exposure, such as BTC, to build another one.

The table offers some evidence for the first two, over seven days. It does not establish the third or fourth. Three coins are a small, uneven sample—not a capitalization-weighted privacy-sector index. Including Dash is reasonable here because it has privacy-related products, but the mechanisms and markets differ. I am not using only the winners to define a broader sector, nor extrapolating a lasting correlation from a single week.

There is also a useful contradiction across recent dates. An October 17 report described Monero rising during a week when Zcash fell. On October 21, a new Zcash upgrade headline coincided with ZEC’s own sharp rebound. These are different observation windows, not returns I would put in the same performance table. But the changing leadership is exactly why I wouldn’t label the pattern a single continuous move out of Bitcoin and into every privacy asset.

For readers comparing the technologies themselves, the Cryptolinks privacy-coins guide is the better place to start. Here, the question is whether the market behavior supports the popular label.

How much of Monero’s rally involves leverage?

One part of the story has stronger evidence than the broad rotation thesis: traders have been building futures exposure to XMR.

On October 21, CoinDesk reported, citing SoSoValue, that Monero futures open interest had climbed past $300 million. It also put open interest at roughly 515,730 XMR, compared with approximately 400,000 XMR a week earlier. The coin-denominated increase matters: a dollar-value rise can happen partly because the price itself is higher, but an increase measured in XMR points to more outstanding contractual exposure on the reported series.

That isn’t evidence that $300 million of fresh cash entered Monero, much less that it left Bitcoin. An outstanding futures contract has a long and a short. Open interest tells us there are more positions, not who will win or which direction the market must go next. CoinDesk’s figures are a dated, attributed derivatives reading, not a live October 23 measurement; I could not independently verify the underlying contract and venue breakdown for this draft.

The other missing pieces are important. I did not find a sufficiently comparable October 23 dataset covering spot-only turnover, order-book depth, funding rates, liquidation flows and exchange-level futures exposure for both XMR and ZEC. The aggregate 24-hour trading volumes in my table cannot fill that gap. Rising futures interest may amplify an existing cash-market move, but without a reliable spot-versus-derivatives comparison, I won’t claim leverage is the sole cause—or call this a proven short squeeze.

If you’re evaluating market tools, Cryptolinks has separate directories for crypto market data and exchange statistics, price trackers, and futures and derivatives exchanges. The useful comparison is not just price; it’s price alongside real venue coverage, executable liquidity and positioning.

What is actually driving the privacy narrative?

Zcash has a dated catalyst—but its upgrade has not activated

Zcash has the clearest recent project-specific announcement. On October 22, the Zcash Foundation released Zebra 7.0.0, stable mainnet node software supporting the planned NU7 upgrade. The Foundation places activation at block 3,543,405, estimated around November 5, 2026. As of this article’s cutoff, that is a future activation target, not an upgrade already live on mainnet.

NU7 is designed to reduce target block spacing from 75 to 25 seconds, modify how some transaction fees are reserved for future rewards, and apply updated shielded-pool limits. Faster block spacing isn’t a new claim that every payment is more private or that every transfer settles three times faster. Nor can I isolate how much of ZEC’s October 21 price jump was caused by the announced height as opposed to momentum, expectations or positioning.

The technical consequences and the important legacy-Sprout warning are in the earlier Cryptolinks Zcash NU7 report. That article reflects the October 21 information available then; the October 22 stable Zebra release is the newer status update. Readers who want the longer price-cycle context can also compare the September Zcash rally and futures analysis, rather than assume today’s move began this week.

Monero has a durable privacy thesis; a fresh technical catalyst is less clear

Monero’s core case is privacy by default. Its official FAQ explains how ring signatures, RingCT and stealth addresses help conceal different transaction details. That’s a meaningful distinction from transparent-by-default payment histories, but it is not proof that a specific October price move came from additional real-world users.

I couldn’t verify a new Monero mainnet upgrade implemented during this measured week that would explain the rally. Santiment’s October 20 community note described XMR’s then-seven-day strength and ZEC’s then-daily rise, but its commentary about privacy upgrades is not a dated Monero deployment record. I treat that post as a useful snapshot of attention and narrative, not evidence of new users or direct Bitcoin-to-XMR inflows.

Dash belongs in the comparison, but its privacy news is older

Dash announced shielded transactions on its Evolution mainnet on August 4. That concerns an Evolution-chain shielded credit pool using Orchard-derived technology. It does not mean every ordinary Dash Core transaction is shielded: the Core chain’s privacy feature is a separate CoinJoin mechanism, and wallet support and later shielded-payment features have their own release schedules. The Dash roadmap distinguishes the completed work from additional features still in development.

Dash’s latest 24-hour gain makes it relevant to breadth, but an August launch is not a fresh October 23 catalyst just because it fits today’s headline.

Privacy concerns and bullish forecasts aren’t flow data

Financial surveillance and exchange-access restrictions can make privacy technology more relevant to users. They can also make assets harder to trade. As an example of the access side—not a new October rule—Binance announced on February 6, 2024 that it would discontinue XMR trading pairs on February 20, 2024. I found no verified October 23 government action that establishes surveillance policy as the trigger for this week’s returns.

Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert offered a much more specific investment thesis at Bitcoin Investor Week on February 11, 2026. In the published interview transcript and contemporaneous reporting, he suggested that 5%–10% of Bitcoin could find its way into privacy-focused cryptocurrencies over the next few years. His wording leaves the denominator imprecise; the interviewer subsequently framed it as market capitalization. It was a forward-looking bet, not a measurement of executed reallocations. His DCG and Grayscale interests, including Zcash exposure, also deserve context when weighing the prediction.

Nor would I count social discussion, a most-viewed ranking or a rising shielded pool balance as proof of buyers migrating from BTC. Page views measure attention; on-chain activity measures a different behavior; and shielded transfers may involve funds already held by existing users. Monero’s privacy design further limits what an outside observer can infer about holders, balances and economic flows.

My assessment: what would confirm a real rotation?

Observation	What it supports	Alternative explanation	Confidence / limit
XMR up 9.31% against BTC’s -0.12% over seven days	XMR relative strength	A coin-specific rebound	Moderate; rolling source timestamps differ
ZEC up only 0.42% over the same reported rolling interval	Limited additional privacy breadth	Short-lived event rally or reversal	Moderate for direction, low for structural interpretation
DASH up 8.53% over seven days and 6.39% in 24 hours	Broader, though uneven, privacy-related interest	Dash-specific liquidity and product narrative	Moderate; not a sector index
XMR futures open interest exceeded $300m on October 21	Greater speculative participation	Price revaluation and exchange coverage effects	Moderate; source-attributed, not refreshed to October 23
NU7 release on October 22, activation still pending	A verifiable ZEC-specific development	Traders priced expectations ahead of the release	High for upgrade status, low for price causation
No verified investor-level BTC-to-privacy flows	Direct rotation remains unproven	Portfolio reallocation could occur without public attribution	High confidence in the evidence limitation

I see three live explanations. First, there may be sustained demand for privately transacted digital money; that case would become stronger with repeated BTC-relative gains and credible, persistent spot participation across several privacy assets. Second, the theme may be attracting momentum traders into thinner or more leveraged markets; that would gain weight if funding became crowded, order books stayed shallow and selloffs triggered liquidations. Third, XMR, ZEC and DASH may simply be reacting to different catalysts at different times. The changing daily leadership and the specific NU7 calendar make this third explanation hard to dismiss.

What would change my view? I would want a shared UTC price series across at least 24 hours, seven days and 30 days, with a fixed constituent list; genuinely comparable spot-market turnover and depth; and futures open interest measured both in dollars and contracts, alongside funding and liquidations. I would also check whether greater Zcash shielded usage reflects transfers, retained balances or new activity rather than treat all three as synonyms for adoption. A stronger claim of capital rotation would require actual flow or investor-allocation evidence—not just rising market capitalization.

My verdict: The evidence supports selective privacy-asset outperformance over the past week, led much more clearly by Monero and Dash than by Zcash. It also supports increased speculative positioning in XMR and a specific upcoming Zcash protocol event. It does not yet prove sustained sector-wide spot demand or a direct move of capital out of Bitcoin. With XMR and ZEC both underperforming BTC in the latest 24-hour readings, I would call this a fragmented privacy trade, not a confirmed rotation.

For broader coverage, visit the Cryptolinks crypto news blog or browse the Cryptolinks homepage for research, wallets and exchange categories. This analysis is for information, not personalized investment advice.