Zcash’s shielded supply holds firm at 23% as privacy adoption proves sticky

Zcash's shielded supply market share has held steady around 23% after a notable climb from approximately 8% at the start of 2025. While hype around Zcash's native ZEC token has normalized, privacy adoption metrics have stabilized rather than reversed, indicating sustained interest in privacy-preserving transactions.This stabilization follows a period of sharp growth earlier in the year, when privacy solutions captured significant mindshare across the cryptocurrency community. The current levels suggest users who adopted privacy features have largely remained engaged with them.Privacy development has expanded beyond Zcash, with other projects capturing renewed attention and price performance. Projects like Monero have seen notable gains, indicating that interest in privacy solutions is spreading across multiple implementations rather than concentrating in a single protocol. Development activity also accelerated across different ecosystems and blockchains, with various teams working on privacy-enhancing features tailored to their specific platforms.The privacy narrative appears positioned for continued relevance into 2026, driven by practical adoption needs rather than speculative momentum. As stablecoin payments and mainstream onchain transactions increase, privacy requirements become more apparent. The transparency of public blockchains creates friction for everyday payments. Using an onchain wallet for transactions exposes your complete wallet balance and transaction history to counterparties, creating obvious privacy concerns in commercial and personal contexts.This fundamental tension between blockchain transparency and user privacy suggests privacy solutions will remain relevant as cryptocurrency moves toward practical payment applications, even if speculative attention cycles through other narratives.This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.