Author: Changan I Biteye Content Team

ZEC'S WAVE OF POWER WAS PULLED UP AND ITS LONG-SILENT PRIVACY PLATES WERE PULLED BACK TO THE MARKET CENTRE。

In addition to rising prices, and more importantly, it has rekindled the market discussion of privacy narratives: Today, when data are becoming more transparent in the chain and transactions are becoming easier to track, is privacy or not a small demand

In the past, privacy was often understood as the anonymous demand of a few users. But as more and more funds, transactions and strategies move into chains, privacy becomes a more realistic issue: If all behavior is seen, will the chain finance really be safer

LET'S START WITH THE ZEC AND SEE WHAT THE MARKET IS TALKING ABOUT BEHIND THE PRIVATE SECTOR。

I. Transparent chain: from the cornerstone of trust to the soft side of being shot

The brand risks associated with transparency in the chain are already present in the lending clearing scene。

As early as the previous cycle, when some institutions or large households borrowed on the chain, collateral, debt size, health coefficients and bursting prices were almost openly visible. Just keep an eye on those addresses, and they can be clearly located。

When one large household's explosive warehouse price is seen by the owner, other traders may be trading around this clearing line. The price was hit in the clearing area, which triggered the explosion and then rebounded quickly。

For the first time, such cases have led many to realize that full disclosure of the data on the chain also means that they can be targeted。

In this round, the problem becomes more obvious。

With the redness of derivative platforms on chains such as Hyperliquid, a growing number of whales are starting to silo on chains. Large silos, opening directions, changes in bonds and clearing prices may all be targeted by the market。

• For ordinary users, transparency may be just information

• But for large traders, transparency can sometimes be tantamount to exposing their trading intentions and risk positions to all rivals

Thus, the re-opening of the privacy block is not just due to the rise of certain tokens, nor is it just to the old private currency wheel。

The deeper question is whether a fully transparent chain environment can continue to carry on larger and more professional chain finance。

Users need transparency to build trust, but also privacy to protect assets, strategies and transactions。

II. The three core map points of the private track

From this turn of events, the private track is no longer just an old and anonymous coin. It can be broadly divided into three categories: ZEC, XMR, which is an old private asset; Railgun, which is represented by Aztec, which is a privacy infrastructure; and Genius, SilentSwap, 0xBow, which is a project that places greater emphasis on trade privacy and compliance。

1. Old private currency: assets and payment attributes

Zcash (ZEC): Old private assets under the ZK route

X: @zcash|XHunt ranking: 13364

Zcash is an old private currency representative and one of the earliest encryption projects to use zero knowledge to prove privacy payments. Unlike all transactions in the ordinary public chain, which are publicly accessible, Zcash supports both transparent and private addresses。

users can either make public transfers like bitcoin, or hide the parties to the transaction and the amount of the transfer through shield transfer。

Officially, Zcash also defined it as “encrypted electronic cash” by emphasizing the properties that it uses for private point-to-point payments。

Currency representation:

Naval Ravikant used to say on X that if Bitcoin is an insurance against risks in French currency, Zcash is an insurance against risks in transparency in Bitcoin。

IN TERMS OF PRICE, ZEC IS ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT MAIN-LINE ASSETS IN THIS ROUND OF PRIVACY, RISING FROM $200 IN MARCH TO $620。

Monero (XMR): Default privacy base disk

X:@moneroXHunt ranking: 4812

Monero is also one of the most representative items in the old private currency, with the core positioning being default privacy payments。

Unlike Zcash's choice of privacy, Monero designs privacy as a default, and transactions hide the sender, the receiver and the amount transferred。

Default privacy makes it more pure in the direction of anonymous payments, but also leaves it subject to longer-term increased regulatory and exchange liquidity pressures。

Currency representation:

BUT IN THIS TURN, THE PRICE PERFORMANCE OF XMR IS NOT SIGNIFICANT. ALTHOUGH THE LARGE DISK ENVIRONMENT IS NOT STRONG PER SE, XMR IS CLEARLY INELASTIC COMPARED TO ZEC。

Dash(DASH): Old card payment items with optional privacy features

X:@DashpayXHunt ranking: 11376

Dash is an older payment encryption project that entered the market earlier, and Dash's privacy is optional, mainly through PriceSend。

The central idea of the PrivateSend is to increase the privacy of transactions through a currency-mixing mechanism, allowing users to hide sources of funds and trade paths when needed. But from the point of view of positioning, Dash is not a purely private currency, but rather, its earlier main line narrative is quick payment, low handling fees and routine transaction use。

Currency representation:
IN THIS TURN, DASH HAS HAD A PHASED REBOUND, BUT THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE IS NOT AS STRONG AS ZEC. THE CURRENT PRICE IS ABOUT 43 USDT, ALTHOUGH IT STILL HAS OLD PAYMENT ITEMS AND OPTIONAL PRIVACY LABELS, THE MARKET PRICE FOR IT IS MORE A PLATE WHEEL THAN A RE-PRICING OF THE PRIVATE MAIN LINE ASSET。

Secret Network (SCRT): Smart contractual privacy infrastructure

X:@SecretNetworkXHunt ranking: 3677

Secret Network is an earlier intellectual contract-level privacy public-chain project with core features. The traditional currency of privacy, which focuses mainly on the privacy of transfers, is more likely to address the issue of data privacy at the application level: whether smart contracts can handle sensitive data while operating without exposing all content to the open chain。

The advantage of Secret Network is that it places privacy at the application level. For applications such as DeFi, NFT, games, identities, data markets, etc., many scenarios are not suitable for full disclosure of all user data. The significance of Secret constraints is to allow applications to process encrypted data while still retaining chain verifiability。

Currency representation:
IN TERMS OF PRICE PERFORMANCE, SCRT HAS NOT BENEFITED SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE RETURN OF THIS ROUND OF PRIVATE NARRATIVES. THE CURRENT PRICE IS ABOUT 0.08 USDT, WHICH REMAINS LOW FOR A LONG TIME。

2. A new generation of privacy infrastructure: enabling applications

Railgun (RAIL): Bring privacy into DeFi transactions

X:@RAILGUN ProjectXHunt ranking: 4099

Railgun is a chain-based privacy system for EVM ecology, serving the DeFi scene. It is not about making a new privacy payment asset, but about bringing privacy functions into DeFi transactions。

On the open chain, the user ' s wallet balance, the course of the transaction, the interactive object and the flow of funds can be tracked。

• For ordinary users, this means asset exposure

• For traders, it means that strategies can be replicated or even targeted

That's the problem that Railgun wants to solve: to allow users to hide their chain behavior when they're involved in DeFi。

It is worth noting that Vitalik also recently referred to the bottom-up issue of privacy agreements when talking about the future direction of the Etherwood Foundation. In his view, agreements such as smart contract wallets and Railgun still required the submission of transactions through intermediaries, which was in itself a vulnerable point。

Currency representation:

RAIL HAS ALSO RECENTLY BENEFITED SIGNIFICANTLY FROM A RISE IN THE TEMPERATURE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR, AND THE MARKET VALUE OF RAIL TOKENS HAS RISEN FROM 60 M IN APRIL TO 240 M TODAY。

RAIL IS MORE LIKE A HIGH ELASTIC MARK IN A PRIVATE PLATE THAN A HIGH-MARKET-MARKET MAIN-LINE ASSET SUCH AS ZEC, AND IS MORE LIKELY TO RISE RAPIDLY WHEN MOVING, BUT ALSO MORE EVIDENT IN LIQUIDITY AND VOLATILITY。

Aztec (AZTEC): From privacy DeFi to privacy smart contract network

X:@aztecnetworkXHunt ranking: 760

Aztec is a private L2 in the family ecology, and positioning provides programmable privacy for applications。

It is not a new project. Aztec introduced zk.money and Aztec Conect to provide privacy transfers and the DeFi portal to users of the Taifeng. However, in 2023, the team chose to close Aztec Conect and shift the focus to a new network of privacy smart contracts。

At the end of 2025, AZTEC conducted a public sale for the use of Continuous Clearing Action, at a public price around US$ 0.047。

Currency representation:

IN TERMS OF SECONDARY MARKET PERFORMANCE, THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF AZTEC IS NOT STRONG, AND THE CURRENT PRICE IS ABOUT $0.025, WHICH IS STILL BELOW THE COST OF PUBLIC COLLECTION. HOWEVER, AZTEC HAS HAD A SIGNIFICANT REBOUND IN THE RECENT PAST AS THE PRIVACY PLATE HAS REHEATED。

3. YZi Labs Investment Layout: Focus on trade privacy and compliance balance

Genius Terminal (GENIUS): Private trading terminals for professional traders

X:@GeniusTerminalXHunt ranking: 7845

Genius Terminal is a chain-to-trading terminal for professional DeFi users, with high-speed execution, cross-chain trading and trade privacy。

Genius helps users to hide large silos and trade paths by splitting orders and working with multiple wallets. Users can complete cross-chain transactions in a terminal without frequent switching of wallets, bridges and DEX。

In January 2026, YZi Labs announced its investment in Genius, calling it the private high-development on-chain trafficking technical。

YZi Labs mentioned that Genius aims to provide speed, mobility and privacy experience close to a centralized exchange without sacrificing user ownership and decentrization。

Currency representation:

IN TERMS OF SECONDARY MARKET PERFORMANCE, THE SHORT-TERM ELASTICITY OF THE GENIUS HAS BEEN APPARENT IN THE RECENT PAST, WITH CURRENT PRICES OF ABOUT 0.73 USDT。

SilentSwap: Privacy infrastructure for the trading scene

X:@SilentSwapXHunt ranking: 78144

SilentSwap is a privacy infrastructure for cross-chain trading scenariosi don't know what you're talking abouti don't know. it wants users to hide their financial trails and transaction trails when they cross the chain, transfer and bridge assets。

On the open chain, cross-chain transactions often reveal a lot of information: from which chain the user comes from, what assets are exchanged, where the funds end up, and whether there is a connection between the different addresses. The solution to SilentSwap is privacy disclosure in such cross-chain transactions。

Another feature of SilentSwap is that it does not simply emphasize privacy but also places compliance at the point of sale. The official network clearly lists OFAC & AML Compliant and states that it has two legal opinions in the United States. This makes it somewhat different from its traditional privacy project, which “emphasises only on anonymity”: It seeks to find a balance between non-trust, cross-chain privacy and compliance。

0xBow: Compliance-friendly privacy projects

X:@0xbowioXHunt ranking: 9376

0xBow is an infrastructure project oriented towards a chain of privacy and compliance, with a central orientation of the project。

Unlike the traditional privacy projects, which emphasize “non-traceability”, zeroBow is more concerned with the ability of users to prove that their funds are not mixed with illegal activities while protecting the privacy of transactions。

Its core product is Privacy Pools. The Privacy Pools support point is a private transaction, while avoiding the mixing of user funds with illicit funds. 0xBow monitors deposits into Privacy Pools and screens them through the Know Your Transport mechanism before eligible funds enter the Association Set。

This corresponds to the Association Set Project (ASP) of 0xBow. ASP continuously monitors transactions within Privacy Pools, identifies suspicious patterns and supports Proof of Association, real-time transaction monitoring, programmable compliance and modular deployment。

In other words, 0xBow is not simply an anonymous pool, but an attempt to allow privacy transactions to operate within a compliance framework。

IIIIndustry consensus: privacy is no longer an island narrative

Aster: Perp DEX also started introducing transaction privacy

Aster itself is Perp DEX, but its Shield Mode has put privacy in the derivatives trade experience。

This suggests that privacy needs are no longer confined to the transfer scene. For chain traders, the true sensitivity is often the direction of the warehouse, the size of the warehouse, the course of the transaction and the financial intent。

In Perp DEX, in particular, when large transactions and warehouse changes are exposed to the open environment, they are easily followed, targeted and even priced in advance。

So, Aster's Shield Mode is not essentially a traditional currency of privacy, but rather embedding transactional privacy in Perp DEX products. It reflects a more specific trend: chain derivatives that want to continue to take on more specialized transaction needs may not only address liquidity and handling costs, but also the problems that the transaction is intended to expose。

Vitalik: The Ether House also needs original privacy

Not only does the application level begin to focus on privacy, but the issue is also beginning to be revisited in the core routes of the Taifaf。

Recently, Vitalik also referred to the lack of original privacy capacity in the ETA and suggested a set of short-term privacy improvement directions, including access levels such as Account Action, FOCIL, kept nonces, and Kohaku. They correspond to resistance censorship, unconnectivity of transactions, and privacy protection during wallets and reading chains, respectively。

This means that privacy is no longer an additional function for external applications, but is also being discussed in wallets, transaction structures, access layers and protocol designs。

EIP-8182: THE ETHER HOUSE IS ALSO DISCUSSING ORIGINAL PRIVACY TRANSFERS

EIP-8182 proposes the introduction of a standardized private transfer system for the Taifeng, which allows ETH and ERC-20 transfers to have original privacy capabilities through sharing of shared systems, systems contracts and ZK verification of pre-compilation。

Simply put, it is a question of whether private transfers can no longer rely on decentralized third-party applications, but rather become an infrastructure that can be shared by the ETA layers。

In the past, privacy in the Ethers was often fragmented. Different protocols have different privacy pools, different entrances and different anonymous collections, with the result that user experiences are not uniform and privacy effects are dispersed。

EIP-8182 SEEKS TO MOVE THE ISSUE FORWARD TO THE PROTOCOL LEVEL: IF ETH AND ERC-20 CAN SHARE A PRIVATE TRANSFER INFRASTRUCTURE, WALLETS, APPLICATIONS AND USERS CAN HAVE EASIER ACCESS TO PRIVACY CAPABILITIES。

This also means that privacy is no longer just a narrative of a few privacy projects. Whether Aster puts privacy in Perp DEX, or EIP-8182 pushes private transfers to the ETA level, it is essentially the same thing:

The more mature the world in the chain, the more privacy is not a small function, but a part of the next stage of infrastructure。

IV. At the end: finding a balance between transparency and protection

This round of private tracks is back to the market view, ostensibly as a plate. But if it were to be understood as "the currency of privacy is on fire", it might underestimate the significance of the change. What really changed was that markets began to re-examine transparent borders along the chain。

In the past, the encryption industry used to bind transparency and trust together, believing that the system was more credible as long as all information was made public. But transparency does not mean that all financial behaviour should be exposed without reservation. The asset balance of the user, the course of the transaction, the change of position, the settlement price and the strategic intent are inherently sensitive information. When this information is fully open, transparency may shift from a confidence-building mechanism to a new source of risk。

So, rather than being on the opposite side of transparency, privacy is answering a more realistic question: What information should be made public and what should be protected in order to continue to expand the chain? The real importance of the future may not be who can achieve the most complete anonymity, but who can find a balance between transparency, privacy, compliance and usability。

Full transparency may be sufficient when the chain of finance is still at a small experimental stage. But if it is to carry larger funds, more complex transactions and more professional participants, privacy will no longer be a small demand, but will be part of the next stage of infrastructure。