Privacy Coin Bid Continues as Zcash Rally Lifts ‘Dino’ Sector; Starknet’s STRK Rockets 40%

Zcash’s recent spot-driven rally is cementing its place as a structural rotation to privacy-focused projects as the sector continues to outperform other market segments.

ZEC rose nearly 5% to $635 in the past 24 hours, reversing weekend losses that saw it dip to nearly $480. Its market cap briefly crossed $7.2 billion, overtaking Monero’s $6.3 billion for the second time this month in a symbolic moment in the long-running tug-of-war for dominance among privacy tokens.

The move extends a broader rotation into older “dino” assets that once defined the 2015–2018 market cycle.

Names from this cohort were some of the biggest tokens by capitalization in the market’s early years, but fell from investor favor as newer narratives — such as decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens and memecoins — grabbed retail attention.

Privacy-focused Dash, Decred, Railgun, and Verge have all climbed from 10-25% over the past week, per CoinGecko, while payments-focused LTC$83.50 is up 16%.

Much of Zcash’s appeal lies in its optional privacy model, which lets users choose between transparent and shielded transactions. A move from cash or crypto to going fully private takes minutes on average in a less than five-step process, as CoinDesk Research said in its recent Zcash report. That flexibility has helped ZEC regain traction among institutions that want exposure to privacy tech without Monero’s regulatory baggage, with the latter’s XMR remaining delisted from several major exchanges due to compliance concerns while ZEC enjoys vibrant exchange support.

Meanwhile, Starknet’s STRK has surged 45% to $0.20 in 24 hours, leading Layer 2 gains as liquidity returns to Ethereum scaling tokens.

Starknet’s developer ecosystem has accelerated ahead of several protocol updates this quarter, including the release of a Bitcoin-focused financial platform, and traders are beginning to price in growth after months of stagnation.

A separate, though memetic, factor is Starknet cofounder Eli Ben-Sasson’s previous work as a founding scientist of Zcash, and his recent support of a Zcash and Starknet alliance in the future.

The so-called ‘Ztarknet’ proposal by ecosystem developer @dimahledba to the Zcash community introduces a layer network that combines Starknet and Zcash, creating a private yet highly scalable blockchain.

The proposal includes a method for paying network fees using ZEC, which has garnered early support from prominent Zcash community members, including founder Zooko Wilcox.