Investors are increasingly carefully selecting the cryptocurrencies they entrust their capital to. This trend makes the altcoin season more selective than before. Zcash (ZEC) and other privacy coins remain a priority, despite widespread fear in the market.
The latest data and reports from Grayscale show that the sentiment of ZEC holders remained stable in December. Some indicators have even become more positive.
The Zcash Shield Pool reaches a new all-time high
Data from zkp.baby indicates that the amount of ZEC locked in the Shield Pool has reached a new all-time high. The number has exceeded 5 million ZEC, which accounts for about 30% of the circulating supply.
The Shield Pool is a key feature of Zcash. It enables users to swap ZEC from transparent addresses to shielded addresses. This mechanism provides a higher level of privacy.
Moreover, the amount of ZEC in the Shield Pool remained around 4.8 million throughout November. This stability persisted even when the price of ZEC dropped at one point by nearly 60%. Furthermore, data suggests that ZEC holders maintained long-term conviction and ignored short-term volatility.
In December, the price of ZEC rebounded by over 70%. At the same time, the Shield Pool set a new all-time record. These events further strengthened investor confidence in this privacy cryptocurrency. This may explain why Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX and a well-known investor, issued a bullish forecast for ZEC.
“Bear tears will be my nourishment. The first stop for ZEC is 1000 USD.”
Achieving this record confirms the growing appeal of Zcash. It also shows the overall capital shift towards digital assets that prioritize privacy and security.
Grayscale highlights six privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
Grayscale's report for Q4 2025 further strengthened Zcash's position. Grayscale is one of the largest investment firms in the world in the cryptocurrency industry.
The report describes this quarter as a consolidation phase after strong increases. However, the privacy coin segment proved to be a leader.
Grayscale highlighted six altcoins focused on privacy. Zcash not only led the segment but also in the entire Top 20 cryptocurrencies monitored by Grayscale. The investment firm wrote:
“Several privacy-related tokens appeared on the Top 20 list in Q4, including Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and Beldex (BDX).”
Recent data also showed that XMR recorded higher on-chain usage than ZEC. Investors who missed the rises of XMR and ZEC may consider smaller privacy cryptocurrencies like DASH, DCR, or BAT.
Grayscale also emphasizes that institutional interest is shifting towards assets offering greater privacy. This trend is intensifying with ongoing data leak scandals.
The report also predicts that the privacy coin segment will continue to grow dynamically in 2026. This growth will be driven by integration with DeFi and Web3 applications.
To read the latest cryptocurrency market analysis from BeInCrypto, click here.
