Monero rallies back toward all-time highs, overtaking Zcash in market cap

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Artem Shendetskii

08.01.2026

Monero rallies back toward all-time highs, overtaking Zcash in market cap — XMR regains leadership in privacy sector as capital rotates out of Zcash

Monero (XMR) climbed back toward its all-time high levels this week, reclaiming the top spot among privacy-focused cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

XMR was trading near $460 on Thursday, not far from the roughly $490 level reached briefly in late December, extending a steady multi-week advance, reports The Block.

The rally has quietly outperformed much of the broader privacy-coin segment, which has shown mixed performance since the end of 2025. Earlier last year, Monero had faded from the spotlight as traders rotated aggressively into Zcash, which became the preferred privacy trade during the sector’s rally. That dynamic has now begun to reverse, with capital flowing back toward Monero. Market participants appear to be reassessing relative risk as narratives around development stability regain importance.

Network resilience offsets lingering technical concerns

Monero’s rebound comes despite renewed attention on its network history, including a major block reorganization event in September 2025. That incident marked the largest reorg recorded on the network and briefly revived concerns about mining concentration and reorganization risk. While the event weighed on sentiment at the time, it ultimately failed to disrupt Monero’s long-term operation or user activity. Since then, the network has continued functioning without material degradation, helping restore confidence among longer-term holders.

Analysts note that Monero’s conservative development approach and established privacy guarantees remain a key differentiator. As broader privacy narratives cool, resilience and predictability appear to be regaining value in the sector.

Zcash hit by developer exit and governance uncertainty

Zcash (ZEC), meanwhile, came under sharp pressure after the entire Electric Coin Company (ECC) development team resigned following a governance dispute with its parent nonprofit board. ECC CEO Josh Swihart said the developers plan to form a new company after what he described as a constructive discharge by the Bootstrap board. The news triggered a sudden selloff, pushing ZEC down roughly 15% on the day before a modest rebound.

The move extended Zcash’s pullback from November highs, unwinding part of the surge that had lifted it back into the top-20 tokens late last year. Investors are now questioning near-term coordination around protocol development and roadmap execution. The contrast between Monero’s operational continuity and Zcash’s governance shock has accelerated the shift in market leadership within the privacy-coin segment.

Recently we wrote that ZCash (ZEC) is currently priced at $428.80, posting a daily decline of $63.71 or 12.94%.

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