Zcash surges 17% in a single day, derivatives trading heats up beyond Solana, is a new opportunity emerging in the privacy sector?

Amidst the continued sideways consolidation of Bitcoin prices, Zcash (ZEC) unexpectedly became the market focus. Driven by speculative demand and privacy narratives, ZEC accumulated approximately 30% gains during the Christmas holiday period, with a single-day surge of 17% on December 27, pushing the price to a high of $515. The monthly rebound reached 43%, recovering nearly half of the losses from Q4 2025.

From derivatives data, Zcash even surpassed Solana in this round of market activity. In the past 24 hours, the global perpetual contract trading volume for ZEC reached about $2.9 billion, accounting for roughly 7% of the total market, ranking third behind BTC and ETH, while SOL’s trading volume in the same period was approximately $2.65 billion. This change indicates that, in the short term, the funds and activity involved in ZEC speculation are significantly higher than those for Solana.

The privacy sector is regaining mainstream attention. According to Artemis data, privacy-themed assets performed the best in 2025, with ZEC and other privacy coins like XMR achieving an annualized return of over 250%. In contrast, meme coins represented by the Solana ecosystem performed poorly, with an average decline of about 62% this year, which to some extent suppressed SOL’s market performance.

In addition to price and derivatives activity, Zcash’s on-chain usage also signals positive developments. By the end of 2025, the supply of Shield ZEC had grown to approximately 5 million coins, nearly doubling compared to a few months ago. Analysts believe that rising privacy demands and increasing concerns over financial transparency risks are key reasons for the continuous growth of Shield addresses and anonymous transactions.

Looking ahead, if the current upward momentum continues, ZEC’s price could further test the $600 and even $750 levels. Moreover, the December rally has successfully broken above the 50-day moving average, indicating a bullish technical outlook. However, it is important to note that if the price falls back below the short-term support level of $450, the momentum of this rebound may weaken, and the market could enter a new consolidation phase.