While major privacy coins such as Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) have already reached multibillion-dollar market caps and are generating significant profits, capital flows seem to be shifting toward lower-value privacy coins.
January saw notable accumulation activity recorded in several mid- to low-cap altcoins. This may reflect the whale’s positioning that the privacy coin story will continue to attract capital into 2026, above expectations.
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1. Horizen (ZEN)
Horizen is a privacy layer protocol built on top of Ethereum’s Layer 2 network, Base.
Horizen aims to provide privacy while complying with regulations. The protocol enables institutions, businesses, and users to perform transactions and calculations on-chain in a confidential, verifiable, and legally compliant manner.
ZEN is currently a mid-cap altcoin with a market capitalization of over $226 million. ZEN rose more than 50% in January. Although it has recovered, it remains down more than 90% from its peak in 2021.
ZEN is also part of Grayscale’s investment products through the Grayscale Horizen Trust. According to CoinGlass data, Grayscale has been increasing its ZEN holdings since the end of 2024. The company currently holds over 948,000 ZEN, which is more than 5% of the circulating supply.
Grayscale’s continued accumulation despite ZEN’s over 70% decline since the end of 2024 shows the long-term conviction of Grayscale investors. Previously, Grayscale promotion was one of the key factors driving ZEC’s rise last year.
Some investors think Horizen (ZEN) could be the next pick following the rise in Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH).
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“We have taken a large position in Horizen (ZEN), which looks poised for an aggressive pump following strong gains from XMR and DASH,” Whalepod said.
2.Railgun (RAIL)
RAILGUN is an on-chain privacy and security system built directly on blockchains such as Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, and Arbitrum.
Railgun uses zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography to allow users to transact and interact with DeFi anonymously.
RAIL is the governance token of RAILGUN, with a current market capitalization of over $165 million. According to Nansen data, the exchange’s RAIL balance has decreased by more than 5% in the past 30 days. At the same time, the balance of Whale Wallet increased by more than 24%.
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According to a report from Messari, an on-chain analytics platform, in 2025, Railgun processed $2 billion in shielded and unshielded volume. This activity generated $5 million in revenue.
Messari researcher Railgun Quandt said RAIL may be undervalued at prices below $3. The price of the token could potentially double from its current level.
“Even at $3.10, $RAIL is trading at more than a 50% discount to my RAILGUN valuation model’s base case of $6.26,” Railgun Quandt said.
3. Decred (DCR)
Decred (DCR) is a layer 1 blockchain that uses a hybrid Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The network also supports privacy-preserving transactions.
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DCR’s market cap currently stands at over $479 million. The cumulative trend is evident in the increasing share of supply interests from Q4 2025 onwards.
According to the reduction data, there are currently over 10 million DCR staked. This represents more than 62% of total supply, the highest proportion since March 2025.
With the growing interest in privacy coins, Decred has entered the top 5 privacy coins by market capitalization on CoinGecko. Analysts expect the price to rise above the current $27.6 level and potentially reach $60.
“DCR just came out of an accumulation! Inverted head and shoulders confirmed. This will move the market into markup mode!” predicted analyst AltCryptoTalk.
Experts continue to praise the privacy coin story heading into 2026. Large privacy coins with multi-billion dollar valuations could face profit-taking pressure. Low-cap altcoins come with higher liquidity risk. A mid-cap privacy coin may have the potential to strike a balance between the two and join the $1 billion market cap club.
