Digital-asset market intelligence platform Glassnode reports that Bitcoin remains in a prolonged drawdown, trading 36% below its October 2025 all-time high some 335 days later.

The weakness extends across the broader digital asset market. Among the top 200 cryptocurrencies, the median asset sits 58% below its level from that same October peak, and every major sector remains underwater relative to the market's high—from decentralized finance, down 27%, to gaming, which has fallen 74%.

The sole exception is the privacy sector, which has not only recovered but surged 213% above its October 2025 valuation. The privacy coin market has expanded from approximately $7.1 billion to $33.6 billion over the past year, a scale now comparable to Tron's total market capitalization. Nearly half of that growth materialized within the last 30 days alone, during which the sector posted a 90% gain and outperformed all other categories.

The outperformance is notable given the sector's history: privacy coins have spent years under regulatory pressure, with major exchanges including Binance and OKX delisting or restricting coins such as Monero, Zcash, and Dash in various jurisdictions since 2024, partly in response to the EU's Anti-Money Laundering rules and tightened compliance standards elsewhere. That backdrop makes the sector's current rebound a sharp reversal of its multi-year position as one of the market's most heavily de-risked categories.

This recent acceleration has not altered the broader market's fundamental divergence: privacy remains the only sector trading above its previous peak, while all others continue to lag behind their October levels.

The median altcoin is 58% below its price at the BTC high. The privacy sector is 213% above it, and not only because of $ZEC.

— glassnode (@glassnode) September 7, 2026

ZEC Leads, But Sector Breadth Defies a Single-Coin Narrative

Glassnode researchers note that Zcash has been the primary engine of this expansion, delivering a 2,496% year-to-date return and climbing from 82nd to 7th place by market capitalization. The asset now constitutes 62% of the entire privacy sector's market cap. However, the rally extends well beyond a single name.

All eight privacy coins with at least one year of trading history have posted gains this year. Even when excluding ZEC, the sector's capitalization-weighted basket remains up 85% year-to-date and 56% since Bitcoin's all-time high. Monero (XMR) has doubled over the same period, while Dash (DASH) and Horizen (ZEN) have each outpaced Bitcoin over the trailing 90 days.

The contrast between short-term and long-term market breadth underscores the privacy sector's unique position. Only 25 of the top 200 assets have registered positive returns this year, with a median decline of 55%. Yet over the past month, 91.5% of those same assets rose simultaneously—marking the broadest monthly advance on record.

Analysts highlighted that among the 25 largest cryptocurrencies, only four trade above their October 6 levels: ZEC, HYPE, XMR, and WBT, with privacy coins accounting for half of that select group. The dispersion between sector performances has also widened to levels last seen in November 2025, suggesting that while the recent bounce is broad, the year's returns remain concentrated within a single category that has demonstrated persistent relative strength throughout the cycle.

Source: Metaverse Post