Crypto Whales Are Loading Up on These 3 Mid-Cap Privacy Coins!

Jakarta, Pintu News – While well-known privacy coins such as Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) have reached billion-dollar market capitalizations and recorded significant gains, capital flows now seem to be shifting to smaller-cap privacy coins.

In January, there was significant accumulation activity in a number of mid- to low-cap altcoins. This could be an indication that whales are taking early positions, anticipating that the privacy coin narrative will continue to attract interest and capital flows throughout 2026.

Horizen (ZEN)

Horizen (ZEC) is a privacy layer protocol built on top of Base, Ethereum’s (ETH) Layer 2 network.

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The protocol aims to deliver privacy without neglecting regulatory compliance. Horizen allows institutions, companies, and users to perform transactions and computations on the blockchain in a confidential, verifiable, and legally compliant manner.

Currently, ZEN is categorized as a mid-cap altcoin, with a market value of over $226 million. In January, the price of ZEN surged by more than 50%. Despite the recovery, its value is still down more than 90% compared to its peak in 2021.

ZEN is also included in Grayscale’s investment products through the Grayscale Horizen Trust. According to data from CoinGlass, Grayscale has been increasing its ownership of ZEN since the end of 2024. The company now controls more than 948,000 ZEN, equivalent to more than 5% of the total circulating supply.

Grayscale’s continued accumulation, despite ZEN prices having fallen by more than 70% since the end of 2024, demonstrates the long-term conviction of Grayscale investors. Previously, Grayscale’s promotion was also one of the main drivers of the Zcash (ZEC) price rally last year.

Some investors believe that after the huge rally of Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH), Horizen (ZEN) is potentially the next candidate to experience a price surge.

“We have taken a large position in Horizen (ZEN). The coin looks poised for an aggressive surge after the significant gains of XMR and DASH,” said The Whale Pod.

Railgun (RAIL)

Railgun is an on-chain privacy and security system built directly on top of various blockchains such as Ethereum, BSC, Polygon (POL), and Arbitrum (ARB).

This protocol uses zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography to allow users to make transactions and interact with the DeFi ecosystem anonymously.

RAIL is the governance token of the RAILGUN ecosystem and currently has a market capitalization of over $165 million. Based on data from Nansen, in the past 30 days, the number of RAIL tokens on exchanges decreased by more than 5%. At the same time, holdings by whale wallets increased by more than 24%.

According to a report from Messari, an on-chain analytics platform, Railgun processed $2 billion worth of shielded and unshielded transactions during 2025. This activity generated $5 million in revenue.

Railgun Quant, a researcher from Messari, stated that at a price below $3, the RAIL token is likely undervalued. The token’s price is expected to double from current levels.

“Even at $3.10, $RAIL is still trading at a more than 50% discount to my fair value estimate based on RAILGUN’s base valuation model of $6.26,” Railgun Quant said.

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Decred (DCR)

Decred (DCR) is a Layer 1 blockchain that adopts a hybrid consensus mechanism between Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS). It also supports transactions that maintain the privacy of its users.

Currently, DCR has a market capitalization of over $479 million. The accumulation trend is evident from the increasing proportion of staked supply since the fourth quarter of 2025.

Data from Decred shows that over 10 million DCRs have been staked, representing over 62% of the total supply – the highest figure since March 2025.

As interest in privacy coins increases, Decred has now made it into the top five privacy coins by market capitalization on CoinGecko. Analysts predict the price of DCR will break through its current level of $27.6 and potentially rise to $60.

“DCR just came out of the accumulation phase! The inverse head and shoulders pattern has been confirmed. This indicates the market is entering the markup phase!” said AltCryptoTalk analysts.

Experts continue to rate the privacy coin narrative as a strong theme in 2026. Large-cap privacy coins may face profit-taking pressure. Meanwhile, small-cap altcoins have a high liquidity risk.

On the other hand, mid-cap privacy coins could be a balanced choice and potentially make it into the ranks of assets with billion-dollar valuations.

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*Disclaimer

This content aims to enrich readers’ information. Pintu collects this information from various relevant sources and is not influenced by outside parties. Note that an asset’s past performance does not determine its projected future performance. Crypto trading activities have high risk and volatility, always do your own research and use cold cash before investing. All activities of buying and selling bitcoin and other crypto asset investments are the responsibility of the reader.

Reference:

• BeInCrypto. 3 Mid-Cap Privacy Coins in Heavy Accumulation. Accessed on January 23, 2026