How has Monero Crypto been doing so well throughout this whole bear market?
Although Zcash has been mooning, the entire privacy narrative, including
Monero
1.86%
Monero
XMR
Price
$320.87
1.86% /24h
Volume in 24h
$140.92M
Price 7d
Learn more
is suddenly back at the center of crypto’s risk rotation, but for very different reasons.
Zcash
3.80%
Zcash
ZEC
Price
$473.06
3.80% /24h
Volume in 24h
$292.96M
Price 7d
Learn more
has captured headlines with massive spot volume and violent intraday swings. XMR, meanwhile, is behaving like the asset institutions actually trust when the mood turns toward capital controls, surveillance tech, and tightening regulation.
$xmr breakout will be big pic.twitter.com/yoAhvkSiHQ
— KNIGHT (@cryptoknight890) December 11, 2025
Here’s what you need to know about privacy and XMR going into 2026:
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Will Monero Crypto Pump? ZEC’s Billion-Dollar Volume Masks A Usage Problem
CoinGecko shows ZEC clearing close to $1 Bn in daily spot volume on major exchanges like Binance, far surpassing Monero and DASH. That volume has fueled a wave of speculative breakouts and collapses.
But high volume in isolation is not the foundation of a durable investment case. On-chain activity is telling a different story with BitInfoCharts data revealing:
- Monero averages roughly 26,000 daily transactions
- Zcash sits closer to 8,000, barely a third
TradingView performance data strengthens the divide with ZEC down close to 30% over the past month (but up 675.9% on the year). Meanwhile, XMR slipped only about 12% over the same period.
MEXC Research reports that Monero accounts for 93% of privacy coin trading volume in Q3–Q4 and 72 percent of users. That dominance held even during ZEC’s temporary mania.
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Why Traders Say XMR Looks Structurally Healthier
A surge above $400 has put Monero into a clean cup-and-handle breakout on the daily chart. 99Bitcoins analysts point to a breakout target between $450 and $520, contingent on reclaiming the $420 level with strong volume.
But we also want to warn:
- A drop below $385 breaks the setup
- Liquidity remains thinner than large-cap L1s
- Privacy coins react sharply to regulatory headlines
Still, even skeptics admit the structure looks bullish compared to ZEC’s exhaustion chart.
Regardless, it might be that Zcash is the Bitcoin of privacy coins (and doesn’t change hands much), and Monero is the Ethereum or Solana. That’s what it’s looking like to us, and it gives a reason to hold both.
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Key Takeaways
- How has Monero Crypto been doing so well throughout this whole bear market? Although Zcash has been mooning, so is the XMR price.
- It might be that Zcash is the Bitcoin of privacy coins (and doesn’t change hands much) and Monero is the Ethereum or Solana.
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