Core Insights - Zcash (ZEC) has shown strong performance in the market, outperforming major cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH during recent downturns, but its user base growth does not reflect this rally [1] Adoption Metrics - Zcash's privacy model complicates the evaluation of its adoption through standard blockchain metrics, as it supports both transparent and shielded transactions, with only the transparent side being directly observable [2] - A significant portion of Zcash's activity is now occurring within shielded pools, making it difficult to capture the full user base through transparent metrics, which mainly reflect exchange-related activity [2] Transaction Activity - The only notable increase in visible throughput was due to Zerdinals, which temporarily raised daily transactions above 70,000, but transparent senders remained in a narrow range of 8,000 to 14,000, indicating limited growth in new users [3] - After the Zerdinals event, transactions reverted to previous levels, suggesting that the spike was driven by a small group of repeat users rather than widespread adoption [4] Shielded Transactions - The shielded supply of Zcash has increased from approximately 1.2 million to over 4 million ZEC in recent years, with fully shielded transactions reaching record highs [4] - Trends such as Unified Addresses, auto-shielding, and Zashi's default-private user experience are contributing to increased flows into the shielded pool, indicating genuine private-side adoption despite minimal visibility in transparent metrics [5] Market Comparison - Monero (XMR) remains the leading pure-privacy asset, with all transactions being private and counted at the protocol level, maintaining a stable daily transaction range of 20,000 to 30,000 [6][7] - The stability in Monero's transaction counts suggests that Zcash's recent activity is not indicative of a broader sector-wide shift towards privacy coins, but rather a specific rotation within Zcash driven by its liquidity profile and improving user experience [7]

RT sacha 🦣 (@ssaintleger)🧗Shielded **usage** is going vertical🪙 Shielded zec supply is at an all-time high of ~3M👥 Monthly shielded zec senders are at an all-time high of, checks notes, no one actually knows because that information doesn’t even touch the ledger. It's already gone https://t.co/02RQJhZuKw ...