Zcash News Today: Privacy Coins Redefine Crypto's Future with Encrypted Self-Sovereign Finance

The resurgence of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies is reshaping the crypto landscape, with Zcash (ZEC) leading the charge. In 2025, Zcash has evolved from a niche privacy tool into a robust encrypted-money network, according to a CoinDesk Research report. Shielded adoption has surged, with 20–25% of circulating ZEC now held in encrypted addresses and 30% of transactions involving the shielded pool, as CoinDesk Research reported. The Zashi wallet, a first-party tool, has made shielded transfers the default, normalizing privacy as a baseline feature rather than an optional setting, according to Yahoo Finance.

Eli Ben Sasson, co-founder of Zcash and CEO of StarkWare, praised the Kakarot team for their contributions to Ethereum's cryptographic advancements, according to Zama's acquisition announcement. Meanwhile, Zcash's Project Tachyon, led by Sean Bowe, aims to scale throughput to thousands of private transactions per second, further cementing its role as a scalable encrypted network, as CoinDesk Research reported.This growth has positioned Zcash to surpass Monero in market share, becoming the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by capitalization, as Yahoo Finance reported.

The push for privacy is not limited to Zcash. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, emphasized the need for layered cryptographic strategies to enhance privacy and security. In a discussion on November 11, Buterin noted that zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) alone cannot provide non-coercion resistance in scenarios like voting, requiring integration with trusted execution environments (TEEs) or fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to achieve robust privacy, as LookonChain reported. He advocated for hybrid architectures, such as ZK + FHE, to maintain privacy attributes even if one component is compromised, as LookonChain reported.

Institutional backing is amplifying these efforts. Lighter, a zk-rollup-powered decentralized derivatives exchange, raised $68 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, supported by Founders Fund, Haun Ventures, and Robinhood. The funding will expand institutional offerings, deepen liquidity, and introduce monetization tools while keeping retail transactions fee-free, as CoinDesk Research reported. Lighter's 30-day perpetual trading volume reached $279.5 billion, with $1.15 billion in total value locked, positioning it as a key player in the decentralized derivatives sector, as CoinDesk Research reported.

Zama, a cryptography firm specializing in FHE, further advanced privacy infrastructure by acquiring KKRT Labs (Kakarot). The merger aims to scale confidentiality on public blockchains, with plans to process over 10,000 confidential transactions per second. KKRT Labs, known for its ZK-rollup expertise, brings deep technical capabilities in modular rollup systems and proof-of-concept architectures, as Zama's acquisition announcement reported. The combined entity will focus on applications like confidential stablecoin payments and DeFi, aligning with a shared philosophy of open-source innovation and privacy-first infrastructure, as Zama's acquisition announcement reported.

Regulatory scrutiny is also shaping the privacy coin narrative. The UK government introduced draft rules targeting exchanges and stablecoins, while the Bank of England confirmed plans for temporary stablecoin holding limits, as CoinDesk Policy reported. These moves reflect a broader regulatory reckoning, including the Tornado Cash trials and OFAC's delisting of the protocol, which are redefining legal boundaries for financial anonymity, as Yahoo Finance reported.

Market dynamics underscore the growing demand for privacy. Zcash has surged over 700% since late September, outperforming even Bitcoin and Ethereum amid a bearish macro environment, as Yahoo Finance reported. Monero (XMR) and older privacy projects like Decred (DCR) and Dash (DASH) have also rallied, signaling a shift toward anonymity as a form of self-protection in an era of AI-driven surveillance, as Yahoo Finance reported.

As crypto grapples with ETF flows and macroeconomic pressures, privacy coins are reasserting the cypherpunk ideal of untraceable digital cash. For investors, the inverse correlation between privacy coins and risk assets highlights a growing preference for self-sovereign finance-a trend that may redefine the industry's trajectory.