Many people have already pronounced the "privacy coin market" dead.

Especially after seeing $ZEC team infighting and a sharp price drop,
the conclusion is very uniform:
👉 #隐私币 this wave, 2026 has already ended.
But I actually think—perhaps quite the opposite.
Let's start with a fact:
By the end of 2025, privacy coins were indeed hot.
Zcash and Dash experienced a wave of market activity.
Entering 2026, ZEC ran into problems,
and the sentiment quickly shifted from "optimistic about the sector" to "the sector is finished."
But the question is:
Are we looking at the wrong target?
What truly deserves your attention is never the "problematic" one,
but the one that has never had issues and is quietly gaining strength.
Yes, I mean—
‍#Monero (XMR).
Look at how counterintuitive XMR's experience is👇
In February 2024, it was delisted,
losing liquidity from the largest exchange,
and being "collectively shunned" by mainstream platforms.
According to common sense, it should have gone straight to zero.
But what happened?
👉 Price didn't crash
👉 Bottomed out and held firm
👉 Rose earlier and more steadily than ZEC
👉 Recently even broke new historical highs
This is no longer something that can be explained by "luck."
To put it simply:
XMR is the true leader among privacy coins.
Technical maturity: leading
Privacy strength: default privacy, not optional
Community consensus: years of organic maintenance
Resistance to regulation: has been "stress tested"
Zcash is more like a research project,
while Monero is a "tool" that is alive, in use, and in transactions.
The true value of a coin,
sometimes, has little to do with whether it is listed on major exchanges.
What really matters is:
Is the technology a necessity?
Is the community faith-based?
Can it survive in the worst environment?
The answer from XMR is all YES.
It doesn't rely on exchange traffic,
nor on marketing narratives,
but on real usage + long-term trust, forging an independent path.
So now saying "the privacy coin market is over,"
I think that's a misjudgment.
It’s more like:
❌ The trend isn't over
✅ But a change in leadership within the trend
When a player encounters problems,
funds and attention
will definitely flow to the more reliable, resilient option.
The highlights of the privacy coin sector in 2026 may have already changed:
It’s not about a hundred flowers blooming,
but—
👉 The reaffirmation of leading value.
Privacy won't disappear,
it will just concentrate on the most resilient one.
The show may have just begun.