Key Highlights:
- EU AML rules will ban anonymous crypto transactions on regulated platforms from 2027.
- Privacy coins usage increased in 2025.
- Users are moving to privacy coins and privacy enabled platforms to maintain confidentiality.
Privacy coins are nothing but cryptocurrencies just like Bitcoin and Ethereum but they are designed to hide transaction details so that not everybody can see who sent funds and who received it and what was the amount that was transferred.
In 2025, privacy coins experienced a significant surge as the regulation and surveillance was tightened around them. Across Europe, MiCA pushed crypto firms to make sure they comply with all the said rules and regulations.
Moreover, EU’s broader AML packaged highlighted that by 2027, regulated crypto companies, which includes exchanges, custodians, payment apps, must identify who is sending and receiving crypto, it should verify ownership of wallets that are taking part in crypto transfers, and the companies should report any transactions that cannot be properly traced. If at all a coin is not able to provide any of the above said information, then the provider cannot support the coin legally.
The main reason why people made the shift to crypto was to maintain privacy as much as they could. According to studies, it has been found that Bitcoin is actually very transparent compared to other cryptocurrencies as the ledger is public. Anybody can quickly look up the transactions and get all the information that they need.
As these rules around privacy crypto started to get more and more stringent, exchanges started to make some moves. Classic examples include, back in 2024, Binance delisted Monero (XMR) on a global level as it could not comply with the exchange’s compliance standard. Later on even Kraken followed the suit and removed Monero from its EEA offering and around 60 more cryptocurrencies were delisted from exchanges.
However, this did not stop users from using privacy coins. They simply stopped using these private tokens on platforms such as Binance or Kraken and moved to holding these coins in their own wallets. They started trading between individuals (P2P) without the need of intermediaries. People also started making use of privacy-first networks tools without going through an exchange that asks for ID or links activity to their real-world identity.
This shows that the use of privacy coins surged because users moved away from regulated platforms and in this way they could maintain their financial privacy.
Let’s quickly have a look at our top 5 privacy coins to look out for in 2026:
Monero ($XMR):
Monero is a very well-known privacy token. It provides privacy as a default setting and uses ring signatures to make sure that the information of the sender is hidden, stealth addresses are used to hide the receiver and confidential transactions (RingCT) to hide the amount of the transactions. All of these core transaction details are hidden on-chain.
The project can be audited for supply integrity, but individual transactions are designed to be untraceable and non-transparent to the public. This is what is attracting users to this particular coin and this is why this very token was delisted from various exchanges.
Despite all of this, Monero hit an all-time high of $797.73 on January 14, 2026, which indicates market confidence within the project. The price of the token currently stands at $515 with a market cap of $9 billion as per CoinGecko.
Zcash ($ZEC):
Zcash (ZEC) is another privacy token that uses zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to let users send transactions without having to publicly reveal the transaction details.
However, the catch here is that the details are only hidden when the privacy mode is used. This project provides optional privacy which means its in the hands of the users if they want to shield their transactions (shielded transactions) or keep them transparent.
Moreover, Zcash can be partially audited which means that it can generate viewing keys to selectively share transaction details for compliance purposes. This optional privacy has also attracted a huge number of users who prefer compliance over total anonymity.
In November 2025, ZEC received a great support from BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes and he tweeted that theZEC could reach $1000 market. His tweets could push the price of the token and there was a point where the price of the token climbed more than $500 mark.
Currently, the token is trading around $364 with a market cap of $6 billion as per CoinGecko.
Dash ($DASH)
DASH offers optional privacy through its PrivateSend feature. Here the coin uses coin mixing to obscure transactions. When a transaction is made by the user, the coins are pooled together with coins of others and then these coins are shuffled through multiple rounds, making it difficult for outsiders to link a specific sender to a specific receiver.
In this way a layer of transaction is provided with this method but it is not as good as ZEC or XMR because at times, amounts can sometimes still be inferred and the process relies on masternodes rather than fully cryptographic privacy.
Moreover, as the transactions are hard to trace, regulators or blockchain analysts can usually follow patterns if enough data points are available. Dash is also not considered to be a pure privacy coin because the privacy is optional, not default and the technology is less sophisticated than Monero’s ring signatures or Zcash’s zkSNARKs.
After all of this, in January 2026, the token experienced a seven-day rally of over 100%. Currently the price of the token is trading at $69 with market capitalization of $881 million as per CoinGecko.
Secret Network ($SCRT):
This blockchain uses encrypted smart contracts that hide sensitive data used in applications, which offers limited privacy compared with full privacy coins. The project is currently focusing on confidential AI and SecretVM, which will allow developers to build private, secure decentralized apps.
In 2026, the project is going to focus on technical upgrades, ecosystem growth, and alignment with industry trends. Currently the price of the token is trading at $0.1866 with market capitalization of $61 million as per CoinGecko.
Horizen ($ZEN)
Horizen started out its journey in 2017 and proceeded with optional shielded transactions using zk-SNARKs which lets users choose between private or transparent transfers.
Through these years, the token project evolved into a modular platform for developers, with its Zendoo sidechain protocol which allowed custom blockchains and dApps connect to the main network.
The recent upgrades that took place within the project are now focusing on EVM compatibility, layered architectures and privacy-allowed applications, making Horizen more of a privacy-focused platform than a classic privacy coin.
Currently the price of the token is trading at $10 with market capitalization of $178 million as per CoinGecko.
Conclusion:
In 2026, privacy remains an important driver in crypto. Monero leads with always-on anonymity, Zcash offers optional shielded transactions, and Dash provides lighter privacy. Platforms like Secret Network and Horizen extend privacy to smart contracts and applications. Together they show that crypto privacy is evolving beyond payments to secure, flexible, and censorship-resistant networks.
Also Read: How to Mine Dogecoin in 2026
See less
