Monero declined nearly 20% over the past week, trading around $376 with roughly $125 million in daily volume.
Monero News
Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies posted sharp declines Tuesday, with Monero and Zcash falling approximately 8% over 24 hours. The drops exceeded the broader privacy coin sector average of 5.8%, making Monero and Zcash among the weakest performers in the top 100 by market capitalization.
Monero declined nearly 20% over the past week, trading around $376 with roughly $125 million in daily volume. The pullback follows a mid-January surge that briefly pushed Monero above $680 before reversing lower through recent weeks.
Zcash dropped more than 26% over the week, with heavier turnover of approximately $399 million in 24-hour volume. The decline comes after a late December rally carried Zcash above $540, before prices reversed through January into early February.
Pavel Nikienkov, co-founder of privacy blockchain Zano, attributed the drawdown to a mix of broader risk-off sentiment and privacy-specific regulatory pressure. Markets tend to sell narratives perceived as regulatory risks first, and privacy coins often fall into that category regardless of actual use cases, he explained.
Privacy assets face structural headwinds including delistings and reduced exchange access, which can amplify price movements compared to the broader market. Over the past three years, centralized platforms have restricted or removed privacy coins from listings, citing compliance and surveillance requirements from regions including the European Union.
These moves have weighed on liquidity and institutional participation. Newly listed privacy token Zama, leveraging fully homomorphic encryption, also traded lower with an intraday decline of about 19%, coinciding with losses in Monero and Zcash.
The selloff raises questions about whether privacy coins are being priced as regulatory liabilities or misunderstood as expendable features. Nikienkov said the industry's mistake is pushing opt-in privacy models, because privacy only works as a network effect.
When most users remain transparent, the private set becomes small and more identifiable. Privacy as a default is necessary for real commerce, payroll and everyday payments, since no functioning economy operates on fully public transaction histories, he added.
Prediction market Myriad users place just an 18% probability on Zcash reaching $550 rather than $250 in its next major move. The contrast reflects ongoing uncertainty about whether privacy infrastructure will gain traction or continue facing market and regulatory resistance.
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