Glassnode: Zcash (ZEC) Leads Privacy Sector 213% Above Last October's High

Privacy Sector Defies the Drawdown

Privacy coins have become the standout trade of a bruising year for digital assets. On-chain analytics firm Glassnode reported on September 7 that privacy is the only sector among the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization still trading above its October 2025 high, sitting 213% above that peak. The contrast is stark: proof-of-work giant Bitcoin (BTC), 335 days removed from the same high as of September 6, is down 36%, while the median top-200 asset has fallen 58% — only 25 of the 200 largest assets posted a positive return over the trailing twelve months. Momentum is recent and broad. All ten sectors Glassnode tracks rose over the past 30 days, but privacy led with a 90% gain, and 91.5% of top-200 assets appreciated in the window, the widest breadth of any month in the firm's measurement period. The sector's aggregate market capitalization has expanded from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion — a 4.7-fold increase that puts it on par with TRON (TRX) — and nearly half of that growth accumulated within the past 30 days. Zcash (ZEC) is the center of gravity: Glassnode's tally shows the shielded-payment asset climbing from 82nd to 7th in market-cap rank over the past year and now accounting for 62% of the privacy sector, with a 12-month return of roughly 2,496%. CoinMarketCap data puts ZEC 10th overall at about $19.5 billion as of September 8, placing it alongside top-ten incumbents such as XRP. And the move is not a one-token story: all eight privacy assets with a full year of price history are positive, led by DASH at +202%, with Monero (XMR) roughly doubling and two further names up 145% and 124% — capital that once chased Layer-2 tokens like Optimism has rotated hard into financial privacy.

Glassnode's September 7 sector-performance update on X

https://x.com/glassnode/status/2096943736584302607?s=20

Pre-IPO Perps Track IPO Opens Within 5%

Off the token markets, crypto's derivatives rails are quietly extending into equities. A September 9 report on real-world-asset markets from CoinGecko examines pre-IPO perpetual futures — contracts with no expiry date, running 24/7 on exchange infrastructure, that reference the implied valuation of a private company rather than any tradable share. The report's thesis is that these markets already deliver continuous price discovery ahead of a traditional IPO order book, and their record against actual opening prints is surprisingly tight. In the SpaceX case, pre-IPO perp prices ranged between $158 and $170 across venues before converging near $157.40; the stock's first Nasdaq trade printed at $150.05, a gap of about 4.9%. Changxin Memory (CXMT) showed a similar spread of roughly 4.6% between pre-listing perp pricing and its opening trade. In both instances, the price formed before the regular equity book opened landed within five percent of the real open. The mechanics matter: these contracts confer no equity rights, and immediate arbitrage against spot shares is impossible because no spot exists pre-listing — traders are pricing a private company's implied valuation, listing expectations and prospective liquidity. Perp prices therefore react quickly to leverage and positioning demand but cannot be assumed to track the stock one-for-one; venue liquidity and contract structure shape the divergence. CoinGecko itself flags the caveats — two case studies are a small sample, volumes are hard to verify across venues, and convergence is not guaranteed for every private company. Still, the report concludes that pre-IPO perps can function as a reference price before traditional books open, a role that blurs the line between private markets and the venues where such contracts trade, alongside the derivatives offered on major crypto exchanges. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on MEXC.

A Price-Discovery Layer in Formation

Off the markets, crypto-crime enforcement notched a milestone. Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty on September 8 before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C. to one count of participating in a RICO conspiracy that prosecutors tie to more than $245 million in stolen cryptocurrency. According to the Justice Department, Lam organized an international ring that targeted holders through impersonation and account takeovers, escalating to residential break-ins when remote tactics failed; the case grew from the theft of more than 4,100 BTC — over $230 million at the time — from a D.C. resident in August 2024, with a superseding indictment later adding 12 defendants and a $263 million alleged total. Prosecutors say members spent proceeds on at least 28 exotic vehicles and $500,000-per-night nightclub bills. A December 8 status hearing is set, with no sentencing date announced.

(as of 05:21 UTC) Read together, the two data points sketch a single arc: crypto is maturing into a price-discovery layer, not merely an asset class. On one side, Glassnode's sector data shows capital rotating into privacy — a thesis trade — while 91.5% of the top 200 rose in one month, evidence that bid depth has returned market-wide even with Bitcoin still 36% below its peak. On the other, pre-IPO perps converging within five percent of two Nasdaq opens show crypto's 24/7 derivative rails pricing assets that traditional markets have not yet opened. Our read: watch whether ZEC's 62% share of the privacy sector holds as breadth widens — concentration this extreme has historically preceded rotation.