Privacy coins have gained 213% since Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak, with their combined market capitalization rising from $7.1 billion to $33.6 billion and Zcash accounting for roughly 62% of the sector. ZEC briefly reached seventh among crypto assets and currently ranks ninth on CoinGecko, placing it near Hyperliquid’s $19.87 billion market capitalization. Zcash’s market capitalization is about $19.3 billion, leaving a gap of roughly $570 million, or less than 3% of HYPE’s valuation. Assuming its token supply and capitalization conditions remain unchanged, ZEC would need to trade around $1,178-$1,180 to overtake HYPE; it was recently trading near $1,140-$1,144. ZEC has risen about 25-fold over the past year, more than 2,100% year on year and 32% over two weeks, while remaining below its 2016 all-time high near $3,190. Glassnode found privacy was the only crypto sector trading above its October peak, and Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, $ZCSH, surpassed $500 million in assets within two weeks of launch. Analysts remain divided over whether the rally is justified: valuation models cited by filbfilb implied about $944, while higher convergence values depended on Zcash’s network activity continuing to catch up with Bitcoin’s. Bitcoin traded near $77,000, roughly 39% below its October 2025 all-time high.