Institutional interest shifts toward privacy assets, with growth expected through DeFi integration.
Investors are becoming increasingly selective when allocating capital to altcoins. This shift makes the altcoin season more selective than before. Zcash (ZEC) and other privacy coins remain priorities amid widespread market fear.
Latest data and reports from Grayscale show that ZEC holder sentiment stayed stable in December. Some indicators even turned more positive.
According to data from zkp.baby, the amount of ZEC locked in the Shield Pool reached a new all-time high. The figure surpassed 5 million ZEC, accounting for about 30% of the circulating supply.
The Shield Pool is a core feature of Zcash. It allows users to convert ZEC from transparent addresses to shielded addresses. This mechanism ensures enhanced privacy.
Notably, the amount of ZEC in Shield Pools stayed around 4.8 million throughout November. This stability persisted even as ZEC’s price dropped by nearly 60% at one point. The data suggests that ZEC holders maintained long-term conviction and ignored short-term volatility.
In December, ZEC’s price rebounded by more than 70%. At the same time, Shield Pools set a new all-time high. These developments further reinforced investor confidence. This backdrop may explain why Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX and a prominent investor, issued a bullish outlook on ZEC.
“The tears of the bears shall be my sustenance. ZEC first stop $1,000.” — Arthur Hayes said.
Reaching this all-time high highlights Zcash’s growing appeal. It also signals a broader shift in capital toward digital assets that emphasize privacy and security.
Grayscale’s Q4 2025 report further strengthened Zcash’s position. Grayscale is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency investment firms.
The report described the quarter as a consolidation phase after strong growth. However, the privacy coin segment emerged as a standout performer.
Grayscale highlighted six privacy-focused altcoins. Zcash led not only the privacy segment but also the entire Top 20 universe tracked by Grayscale.
“The list of Top 20 performers in Q4 featured several privacy-related tokens, including Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and Beldex (BDX),” Grayscale reported.
A recent BeInCrypto report also showed that XMR maintained stronger on-chain usage than ZEC. Investors who missed the rallies in XMR and ZEC may consider smaller-cap privacy coins, such as DASH, DCR, and BAT.
Grayscale emphasized that institutional interest is shifting toward assets offering stronger privacy. This trend intensifies as data breach scandals continue to surface.
The report also forecasts that the privacy coin segment will continue to grow strongly in 2026. Integration with DeFi and Web3 applications is expected to drive this expansion.
