Privacy Coins Make a Comeback: XMR and DASH Surge as Investors Seek Financial Anonymity

Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) are leading a resurgence in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies as regulatory scrutiny pushes investors toward financial anonymity. These coins—built on untraceable transaction tech—are outperforming mainstream assets while traditional finance scrambles to 'innovate' with KYC-laden CBDCs.

Why now? Post-FTX collapse, self-custody trends meet growing surveillance concerns. Privacy protocols suddenly look less like darknet tools and more like rational hedges against overreach.

The irony? Wall Street still calls crypto risky while quietly hoarding XMR—proving hypocrisy remains the most stable investment strategy.

XMR becomes the privacy coin leader

While ZEC consolidated above $400, XMR extended its rally. The coin expanded to $679.14, marking a series of records within minutes on Tuesday. 

The recent XMR rally meant some of the early Monero supporters from the 2018 bull cycle are finally in profit with a new all-time peak. XMR lagged behind other assets and was barely touched by the series of bull markets, as the coin was delisted from most exchanges. 

XMR failed to live up to the expectation for a four-digit price, but the recent rally is reviving those predictions. The coin saw anomalous orders all the way up to $1,000 on the Asian markets, driving the rest of the exchanges to follow. 

Monero re-emerged despite the exchange delistings and is now serving as an alternative to ZEC as the go-to privacy coin. With stricter wallet reporting regulations, XMR is rediscovering its niche as a hard-to-trace store of value, which cannot be linked to an identity or a wallet cluster. 

XMR is now in price discovery territory, though with 44% of volumes concentrated on KuCoin. Kraken is the most open platform for trading XMR, though the coins must be deposited as non-anonymous assets. 

Open interest for derivative traders also jumped to a new all-time high, from a baseline of $30M to over $184M. Over 61% of the open positions are shorting XMR, meaning the rally is partially a short squeeze to liquidate positions.

DASH returns along with other legacy privacy coins

DASH was also among the day’s top gainers, expanding to over $51. However, DASH is still far from its all-time peak of over $1,100. The privacy coin still benefits from a Binance pair, as the asset was not delisted during the removal of privacy coins. 

Decred (DCR) also expanded to $18.89 with a strong intra-day rally, though the token has not grown its influence and is only reacting to the privacy narrative. XVG moved back to a one-month high of $0.007. 

At this stage, XMR is still the main engine of growth, but smaller tokens may be picked for short-term gains. Despite the lack of an overall altcoin market, the privacy narrative is seen as a strong source of growth for the year ahead.

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