Восход Монеро: Анонимная криптовалюта завоевывает рынок после кризиса Zcash Translation: Rising Monero: Anonymous Cryptocurrency Reclaims Market After Zcash Crisis

Monero (XMR) has once again taken the lead in the ranking of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, nearing its all-time high. This surge in value comes amidst a crisis in the Zcash (ZEC) ecosystem.

As of this writing, the XMR price has surpassed $462, which is 14.7% lower than its peak of $542 reached in January 2015. The asset has shown consistent growth over the past few weeks, outperforming most of its competitors in the market.

The current trend marks a significant shift from the latter half of 2025 when investors favored Zcash while Monero was grappling with technical challenges (a major block reorganization) and faced criticism regarding the centralization of its mining process.

The landscape has transformed dramatically: ZEC plunged by 15% within a day following news of the entire Electric Coin Company team leaving. Company CEO Josh Swihart attributed the departure to conflicts with the board of directors of the parent organization, Bootstrap.

The developers plan to establish a new entity; however, the sudden exit of the team has raised concerns regarding Zcash’s roadmap and development coordination. This uncertainty has disrupted the asset’s rally and triggered a sell-off.

The main issue at hand was the attempt to monetize the protocol, which included the «privatization» of the flagship Zashi wallet. The Bootstrap board blocked these initiatives due to concerns over legal and corporate risks.

The departed team has already announced the launch of an alternative wallet, CashZ, based on Zashi’s code, promising users a simple migration process.

“Nonprofits are mired in bureaucracies while tech startups are rewriting the rules,” stated Swihart.

Data from Santiment reflects the project’s struggles. Despite ZEC experiencing a 15-fold increase in market capitalization during the autumn of 2025, developer activity has declined to levels not seen since 2021 since November.

In the past two months, the coin’s price has adjusted by 40%. Analysts have noted that a slowdown in development tends to historically precede altcoins lagging behind the market.

It’s worth mentioning that analysts from a16z crypto have stated that privacy will be the main competitive advantage for projects in 2026.