For months now, something strange has been happening in one of crypto’s oldest, dustiest corners.

Privacy coins—Zcash, Dash, Monero, the dinosaurs your uncle mined in 2017 and forgot about—have suddenly started moving.

Not drifting. Not wobbling. Not “rotating.” I mean erupting.

1300% here.

600% there.

Billionaires doing victory laps on X. Retail piling in like they discovered a secret room in an abandoned casino.

And the question floating above all of it: Are privacy coins the next BIG move in crypto?

Some very loud, very smart people think so. Mert from Helius went viral on X for saying it outright. Arthur Hayes poured gasoline on Zcash and flicked a cigarette. Edward Snowden chimed in. Vitalik couldn’t resist adding his take.

Suddenly, the “privacy coin thesis” was everywhere.

But here’s the problem:

If you don't understand why this is happening now—after a decade of privacy coins being ignored, delisted, frowned upon, and treated like radioactive sludge—you’re going to misread the opportunity entirely.

Because this isn’t about coins.

Not really.

Allow me to explain the real reason this is happening… why I think privacy is inevitable… and why it probably won’t happen in the way most crypto influencers are saying.

Strap in. This one’s going to get me in trouble. 

Why Privacy Matters Again

One of crypto’s origin stories was it would be “anonymous internet money.”

Then everyone used it for five minutes and realized: No.

Blockchain is more like financial X-ray vision.

Every swap, bridge, liquidity pool, perp trade, meme rotation—everything is permanently etched into the public record.

And if someone knows your wallet? They know all the embarrassing details about your entire financial life.

Of course, most crypto traders don’t care—until they do.

Until a giveaway, a payment, a tip, or a casual transaction exposes their entire balance sheet to some stranger in a Discord server and then said stranger doxxes them publicly on X for something they did two years ago that they thought nobody would ever notice. (Probably happened.)

Bitcoin doesn’t fix this. Ethereum doesn’t fix this. Solana doesn’t fix this.

So a vacuum has opened. Nature abhors vacuums. Crypto abhors them even more.

Enter privacy chains.

Chains that give you something the base layers cannot: A cash-like transaction that leaves verification intact and visibility removed.

Regulation Added Jet Fuel

Tornado Cash, a privacy mixer on Ethereum, isn’t responsible for kicking off the privacy narrative. The U.S. government did—by arresting the developers.

Five-year sentences. Open-source code treated as contraband. Sanctions on software.

Europe, not to be outdone, followed along with their MiCA regulations:

→ Self-custody wallets labeled “high risk.”

→ Exchanges ordered to delist privacy coins by 2027.

This was the spark. Then, the market said: “Oh, you want to ban privacy? OK.”

It didn’t start as price action. It began as a political meme. It began with crypto developers turning their profile pics into the Tornado Cash logo. Then, it slowly lit the fire in crypto’s belly that everyone thought had gone out.

See, every early wave of crypto culture was driven by antagonism toward the state or institutional finance.

But crypto now has institutional wings (tokenized Treasuries, RWAs, ETFs) and regulatory acceptance in a way that would horrify cypherpunks circa 2013.

That has dampened the anti-authoritarian edge, except now in one corner: privacy.

And even big blockchains like Solana and Ethereum are suddenly making privacy a priority.

Privacy Is Niche… Until It Isn’t

Sure…

Privacy coins are niche. Most traders don’t care. Most people just want number go up and taxes stay low.

But narratives don’t need everyone. Narratives need a spark, a villain, and a reason.

And right now we have all three:

• Spark: Privacy coins pumping for the first time in years.

• Villain: Governments treating open-source code like a loaded weapon (again).

• Reason: Every user eventually has a moment where they realize, “I don’t want strangers knowing what’s in my wallet.”

BUT…

The opportunity isn’t that privacy becomes mainstream tomorrow. The opportunity? There’s a moment when privacy will become inevitable.

And that moment is nearing.

AND, here’s the catch…

I don’t think it’ll happen in the way most crypto influencers think.

Instead, crypto will adopt privacy in a completely different way than most expect (not as a coin you can buy and trade).

And if so, that would require an entirely different way of thinking about the future of crypto… privacy… and how to invest in this privacy supertrend.

I have much more to say on this… because there’s lots more to say…

And I’ll say it all next week.

Stay tuned and enjoy your weekend!