Zcash has climbed roughly 32% over the past week, reached about $1,595 on Sept. 19, and rose to No. 9 by market value, according to Unchained. While the most common explanation for the move is renewed interest in privacy coins, Helius co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz argued on the Sept. 21 episode of Unchained that privacy alone does not explain Zcash’s outperformance. In his view, the stronger case ties together privacy, store-of-value characteristics, scale, and quantum resistance. Mumtaz said a true store-of-value asset should minimize surprises, including regulatory surprises and questions around fungibility. He described privacy as one requirement inside a broader package rather than the sole driver. He also pointed to Zcash’s work on faster block times and a future upgrade aimed at full quantum resistance, noting that the network today is quantum-recoverable rather than quantum-proof. The article also highlighted a more concrete catalyst: Grayscale’s spot Zcash exchange-traded fund, ZCSH, listed on Aug. 25 and has drawn $233 million in inflows. At the same time, other privacy coins including Monero and Dash have also moved higher, suggesting a broader sector rotation. Mumtaz added that if privacy becomes common across chains, Zcash would need the fuller store-of-value thesis to keep its edge.

Bitcoin posted a 44% gain in the third quarter through the Sept. 20 close, marking its strongest quarter since the sharp rally seen in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the source article. TradingView data cited in the report showed gold up 8.7% over the same period, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each added 2%, leaving BTC ahead of both major equity benchmarks and Nvidia, which was up 11%. The report said Bitcoin closed the week of Sept. 20 back above its 50-week moving average for the first time in 45 weeks, a level often tracked as a key technical line between bearish and bullish market structure. BTC also moved above its May high and traded above $84,000, its highest level since January, while the article pointed to relatively light recent trading activity between $84,000 and $97,000. Altcoins also advanced. ETH, XRP, SOL, UNI and NEAR were described as gaining between 40% and 150% in the third quarter. Tagus Capital said Ethereum stood out because tokenized assets are being deployed more heavily on its network. Even so, FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich warned that sharp pullbacks can still happen during a bull market, and said caution remains necessary before clearer signs of sustained growth appear.

Bitcoin is up about 44% in the third quarter of 2026, its strongest quarterly showing since the final three months of 2024, according to CoinDesk’s Daybook. At $84,592.36, BTC has outperformed gold, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and even Nvidia over the same period, while still trading 48% below its October 2025 record high of $126,000. Other major tokens have also posted large advances, with ETH, XRP, SOL, UNI and NEAR gaining between 40% and 150%. The report says the rally began with bargain buying after oversold conditions and a short squeeze, then picked up fresh support from regulation. Tagus Capital tied the latest leg higher to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Sept. 17 decision to grant a temporary five-year innovation exemption for qualifying venues to support secondary trading of tokenized U.S. stocks through automated market makers and blockchain liquidity pools. The firm said Ethereum may benefit the most because it remains the leading public blockchain for tokenized assets. Some analysts now say the crypto market is already in a bull phase, though they are not dismissing sharp pullbacks. FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said the market looks bullish, but warned that traders should stay cautious until clearer signs of active growth appear.

NEAR Protocol’s token sharply outperformed the broader crypto market over the past week, rising about 78.2% to around $4.29 as of Monday, while total crypto market capitalization gained roughly 6% over the same period. The move came as Near expanded privacy-focused trading features on near.com and highlighted growing activity across its Intents system. On Thursday, Near said deposits and withdrawals for perpetual futures trading through near.com are now confidential by default, masking the connection between a trader’s funding wallet and a dedicated Hyperliquid account. The company also said confidential total value locked on near.com had passed $70 million, which triggered the first snapshot under its NEAR@3.33 incentive program. That first distribution set aside 333,333 milestone tokens, which unlock and convert to NEAR once the token’s three-day volume-weighted average price reaches at least $3.33. Data from the NEAR Intents Explorer showed cumulative volume of about $29.3 billion and seven-day volume of roughly $842 million on Monday. Zcash wallet ZODL ranked as the third-largest referral source by volume over the previous 24 hours, generating about $3.8 million across 458 transactions. A swap worth roughly $613,000 in ZEC also appeared among the explorer’s largest transactions for the same period.

PANews has published a sector review on privacy-related crypto assets, highlighting a sharp shift in market attention toward tokens tied to privacy narratives, infrastructure and applications. The piece notes that Garrett Jin, described in the article as the "10.11 insider whale" and known for holding a large ZEC spot position alongside a short, has closed a ZEC short that had been sitting on a $30 million unrealized loss. The article frames that move as a notable signal in the current ZEC trade. The report groups the sector’s capital rotation into four stages: first ZEC as a tradable privacy asset, then NEAR as a routing layer that makes privacy feel native, then ZAMA as encrypted-computation infrastructure for public blockchains, and finally application-layer or legacy beta plays such as RAIL, ZEN and DASH. It also cites Vitalik Buterin’s recent comment, "I won’t give up on privacy," as part of the broader backdrop. PANews goes on to compare the tokens by price, 7-day performance, market-cap structure, liquidity and compliance positioning. In its breakdown, ZEC and NEAR sit at the center of pricing and traffic capture, ZAMA and RAIL offer higher elasticity, XMR remains constrained by exchange delistings and compliance issues, while ZEN and DASH are presented as older names that have lagged the sector’s newer privacy narratives.

NEAR outperformed the broader crypto market on Sept. 21, rising more than 20% in 24 hours and breaking above $4.3 as Bitcoin moved past $84,000. At the same time, total value locked on Near climbed to a record $256 million. The rally followed two back-to-back developments inside the ecosystem: the activation of the first snapshot under the “NEAR@3.33” milestone incentive program on Sept. 17, and the Sept. 18 launch of confidential-by-default perpetual trading on near.com with Hyperliquid as the underlying clearing venue. The incentive design tied user rewards to both capital inflows and token price stability. Eligible users can receive 333,333 milestone tokens, but conversion into liquid spot tokens depends on whether NEAR’s three-day VWAP stays at or above $3.33. That structure differs from a standard airdrop and resembles a call option with a $3.33 strike. DeFiLlama data cited in the report showed nearly $65 million in new inflows to Near since Sept. 17. The report also pointed to structural support from Near’s privacy-focused derivatives product, which uses private sharding and trusted execution environment-based cross-chain bridging while tapping Hyperliquid’s order book, monthly volume of more than $240 billion, and more than 50 perpetual markets with leverage of up to 40x. Still, the piece flagged risks tied to mercenary capital, limited revenue capture, and a possible cooldown in the privacy narrative.

NEAR Protocol said on Sept. 21 that NEAR’s volume-weighted average price, or VWAP, held at $3.33 for three straight days, meeting the condition required to convert milestone rewards into tradable NEAR. The team said the relevant rewards have already been converted and distributed, and users can check their accounts for allocations. Under the project’s published rules, the first batch included 333,333 non-transferable milestone tokens. The snapshot that triggered those tokens required Confidential Intents TVL to reach $70 million. Those milestone tokens could only become tradable NEAR after NEAR’s three-day VWAP reached or exceeded $3.33. The eligibility requirements also set user-level thresholds. Participants needed to maintain more than $100 in private balance on near.com and complete at least one private swap. The update confirms that the price condition has now been satisfied and that distribution has been processed for qualifying users.

NEAR Protocol said the token’s volume-weighted average price, or VWAP, stayed at $3.33 for three consecutive days, meeting the condition needed to convert and distribute the related NEAR rewards. Users can now check their accounts for the payout. According to rules cited by Foresight News, the team had initially issued 333,333 non-transferable milestone tokens. The snapshot for that first distribution was triggered once Confidential Intents TVL reached $70 million. Those milestone tokens could only become tradable NEAR after NEAR’s three-day VWAP reached or exceeded $3.33. The rules also required users to keep more than $100 in private balance on near.com on an ongoing basis and complete at least one private swap. No other distribution details were disclosed in the source material.