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In September 2026, the privacy coin sector emerged as the only cryptocurrency segment to hit new highs. Its market capitalization surged from $7.1 billion to $33.6 billion—a 213% increase—while the price of Bitcoin fell by 36% during the same period. Zcash has recorded a year-to-date gain of 2,496%, and Monero has seen its on-chain transaction volume rise against the market trend. Aleo has integrated private transaction capabilities into hardware wallets, and Firo’s Spark protocol successfully withstood a severe security vulnerability attack. What structural shifts are occurring in the privacy sector? Why have these four projects emerged as dark horses? Let us analyze them one by one. Table: Key Data for the Privacy Coin Sector | Metric | Data | | :--- | :--- | | Total Privacy Coin Market Cap | $33.6 billion | | Privacy Coin YTD Return | 213% | | Privacy Coin 30-Day Volume | ~$13 billion | | Zcash YTD Return | 2,496% | | Zcash Market Cap Rank | 7th | | Zcash Sector Share | 62% | | Privacy Coin Concentration | $20 billion concentrated in ZEC | Note: The data above was compiled by Bijie.com from public market sources. Please refer to official channels for the most up-to-date figures. Zcash (ZEC): An Institutional Gateway to Compliant Privacy Positioning Compliant privacy as an entry point for institutional adoption. Strengths Zcash completed a critical upgrade in 2026. Launched in late July at block height 3,428,143, the "Ironwood" network upgrade introduced new privacy-preserving mechanisms (privacy pools) and the "Turnstile" migration mechanism. Grayscale has explicitly positioned Zcash as a "core beneficiary of financial privacy protection in the AI ​​era." Zcash (ZEC) – Latest Price Price data confirms this trend: ZEC’s price surged from a 2024 low of approximately $16 to over $1,000 by early September—an increase of more than 6,300%. Its market capitalization briefly approached $21.6 billion, with gains of 154% over 30 days and 2,413% year-to-date. Currently, over 30% of the ZEC supply has moved into "shielded transaction" mode, and shielded transactions account for the majority of network activity. At the time of publication, the latest price of ZEC was $1,218. Our View: Zcash’s competitive moat lies not in its encryption technology itself, but in its compliance capabilities. Ironwood addresses the issue of trust infrastructure—a primary concern for institutional capital before entering the market. Monero (XMR): The True Test of Irreplaceability Positioning A real-world test of irreplaceability Strengths Despite over 70 exchanges delisting XMR in 2025, on-chain transaction volumes have remained at pre-2022 levels. Nearly half of newly emerging darknet markets accept only XMR for payments. Technically, Monero launched the second testnet for FCMP++ and CARROT on May 6. Full-chain membership proofs expanded anonymity from 16 "decoys" (fake transactions used to verify identity) to approximately 100 million unspent transaction outputs, fundamentally undermining the effectiveness of mainstream tracking tools like Chainalysis. Monero (XMR) – Latest Price In terms of price, XMR held steady between $511 and $541 in early September, with a market capitalization of approximately $9.6 billion to $10.2 billion; at one point, it surpassed Chainlink to break into the top 12 by market cap. Over the past month, its price rebounded from a low of $350 to $570, an increase of over 60%. At the time of publication, the latest price of XMR was $504.62. Our View: Monero’s value lies not in its growth curve, but in demonstrating that mandatory privacy protection is irreplaceable in specific use cases—a level of technology other privacy coins have yet to achieve. Aleo (ALEO): Programmable Privacy Technology Moving Toward Institutional Adoption Positioning Institutional-grade deployment of programmable privacy Strengths In 2026, Aleo achieved an unprecedented milestone in the privacy blockchain sector: introducing fully shielded zero-knowledge transactions into real-world financial applications. The USAD stablecoin, developed through a partnership between Aleo and Paxos Labs, has been deployed on the mainnet. It utilizes zero-knowledge proof technology to enable end-to-end encryption of transaction amounts and counterparties, while supporting two selective disclosure mechanisms: account viewing keys and transaction viewing keys. Aleo (ALEO) – Latest Price There is a significant disparity between ALEO’s token performance and the progress of its protocol. In early September, ALEO traded at approximately $0.017, with a circulating market cap of just $23.4 million and a circulating supply of around 1.4 billion tokens. At the time of writing, the latest price for Aleo is $0.01715. Our Perspective: Aleo’s differentiation lies in the actual implementation of its "programmable privacy" features, rather than its token price. However, the vast gap between the token's market capitalization and the protocol's underlying value represents a risk that investors must clearly recognize. Firo (FIRO): A Protocol-Level Breakthrough in Privacy-Enabled Assets Positioning A protocol-level breakthrough in privacy-enabled assets. Strengths Firo’s Lelantus Spark protocol underwent stress testing. A multi-input spend vulnerability discovered in August was quickly patched. On September 4, the development team executed a mandatory hard fork at block 1,371,000, upgrading the network to version v0.14.18.0. This upgrade introduced the Chaum V2 proof mechanism and a new transaction format, restoring full functionality to Spark. Regarding price, FIRO traded between $0.95 and $1.00 in early September, with a circulating market cap of approximately $18–19 million and a circulating supply of around 19 million tokens. It recorded a 24-hour gain of 31.4%. Firo (FIRO) – Latest Price At the time of writing, the latest price for Firo is $5.35. Our Assessment: Firo is significantly undervalued by the market. If "Spark Assets" are adopted by stablecoin issuers or Real-World Asset (RWA) projects, Firo could evolve from a mere "privacy coin" into a "settlement layer for privacy-enabled assets"—a market with potential many times larger than its current size. However, its market cap currently stands below $20 million, and liquidity is extremely thin. Any positive protocol developments could be amplified by market sentiment, and vice versa. September Outlook for Privacy Coins What is the state of the privacy coin sector in September? Let’s look at the data. An industry report released by Glassnode on September 7 indicates that the privacy coin sector has surged by a cumulative 213% since Bitcoin peaked in October 2025. It is the only category tracked by Glassnode that remains above its cycle high. During the same period, Bitcoin fell by 36%, while the median asset among the top 200 declined by 58%. The total market capitalization of privacy coins jumped from $7.1 billion a year ago to $33.6 billion. Approximately $13 billion flowed into the market over the past 30 days—accounting for more than half of the year's total growth.  Privacy coin sector sees cumulative 213% gain The concentration of capital flows is also noteworthy. Zcash dominates the sector with a 62% market share. Even excluding ZEC, a market-cap-weighted portfolio of privacy coins still grew by 85%, indicating that the sector's strong performance was not driven by a single asset. Monero traded above $500 in early September, rebounding more than 30% from its August low of around $380. In the derivatives market, the value of ZEC open interest rose to $2.91 billion on September 10, with $11.52 million in short positions liquidated within 24 hours. This combination of a short squeeze and spot buying created a short-term reinforcing effect. The core signal from this data is not merely the magnitude of gains, but the fact that capital is backing the institutionalization of the privacy sector. September's price action demonstrates that privacy protection is increasingly evolving into a distinct asset class. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Q1: Is the privacy coin sector still worth watching in 2026? Yes. Glassnode data shows that the privacy coin sector has achieved a cumulative gain of 213% since Bitcoin peaked in October 2025. It is the only cryptocurrency asset class still trading above its cycle high, with a total market capitalization of $33.6 billion—nearly half of which was added in the last 30 days. However, Zcash accounts for 62% of the sector's total market cap; this concentration risk warrants caution. Q2: What have capital inflows looked like since the launch of the Zcash ETF? Inflows have shown positive growth. Grayscale's Zcash ETF began trading on August 25, 2026. As of September 4, it had attracted $34.4 million in net inflows. The price of ZEC climbed above $1,000, and its hash rate rose from approximately 25 GS/s in late August to over 30 GS/s. Sustained institutional inflows indicate that the path to regulatory compliance is being validated. Q3: Did Monero's price fall after being delisted from many exchanges? No, it did not decline. By mid-2026, Monero had been delisted from 73 centralized exchanges, yet on-chain transaction volume grew by 30%. Transaction volumes from 2024 to 2025 surpassed levels seen between 2020 and 2022. Users shifted to decentralized channels rather than abandoning the cryptocurrency. Demand for privacy protection in specific use cases remains strong. Conclusion In September 2026, the privacy coin sector underwent a pivotal transformation. Zcash addressed supply audit issues through the Ironwood upgrade. Aleo brought private transactions to hardware wallets. Firo’s Spark protocol redefined privacy assets after fixing vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Monero demonstrated—through on-chain data—the genuine demand for privacy protection. The privacy sector has grown by 213% this year, reaching a market capitalization of $33.6 billion—though concentration risks remain a reality. Privacy protection is shifting from a niche topic to a component of institutional-grade infrastructure. The next question is: once the hype around price fades, who still has a practical use case (i.e., who still needs privacy protection)? Disclaimer: This content is based on publicly available market data and is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It does not constitute investment advice. Readers are advised to strictly comply with applicable laws and regulations. For the latest updates, please follow CoinJie.$BTC $ETH $IOST

$ALEO - Mcap 42.24M$ - 77%/ 73.1K votes Bullish SC02 M1 - pending Short order. Entry lies within HVN + not affected by any weak zone, the current resistance zone is around 0.98% wide. The downtrend has lasted 3 hours 27 minutes, with the largest recorded price decline at 6.26%. If price breaks above this resistance zone, the trend will likely reverse upward.

$ALEO - Mcap 45.84M$ - 77%/ 72.8K votes Bullish SC02 D1 - pending Short order. Entry contains POC + not affected by any weak zone, the current resistance zone is around 19.17% wide. The downtrend has lasted 224 days, with the largest price decrease recorded at 90.19%. If price breaks this resistance zone, the trend will likely reverse upward.

$ALEO - Mcap 55.51M$ - 77%/ 72.8K votes Bullish SC02 M1 - pending Long order. Entry contains POC + not affected by any weak zone, the current support zone is approximately 1.06% wide. The uptrend has lasted for 1 hour 57 minutes, with the largest recorded price increase at 5.32%. If price loses this support zone, there is a high probability that the trend will reverse to the downside.