CoinDesk 20 Index Gains 4.3% as Zcash Leads Privacy Crypto Market

NEAR and ICP posted double-digit gains despite the CoinDesk 20’s overall decline, while Zcash’s shielded adoption and throughput initiatives reinforced its lead over Monero in market capitalization.

SOL
ICP
NEAR

Summary

The CoinDesk 20 Index closed at 3151.03, down 1.1% (-35.27 points) since Thursday’s close, with ten of its 20 assets recording gains. NEAR rose 12.9% and ICP gained 12.8%, while AAVE fell 3.5% and SOL declined 2.4%. In 2025, Zcash evolved into a fully functional encrypted-money network, with 20–25% of circulating ZEC held in encrypted addresses and 30% of transactions routed through its shielded pool. The Zashi wallet made shielded transfers default, and Project Tachyon, led by Sean Bowe, aims to scale throughput to thousands of private transactions per second. Zcash surpassed Monero to become the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Terms & Concepts
  • CoinDesk 20 Index: A broad-based index tracking the performance of 20 major cryptocurrencies across global trading platforms.
  • Shielded Transactions: Transactions in Zcash that use encryption to hide sender, receiver, and amount details from public view.
  • Privacy-focused cryptocurrency: A digital currency designed to enhance user anonymity and confidentiality, such as Zcash or Monero.