About & Methodology
Privacy loves company. The larger the anonymity set, the stronger the privacy guarantees.
Total private value serves as a proxy for anonymity set weight. A privacy pool with ₿10,000 (~$718M) provides stronger guarantees than one with ₿10 (~$718K) - there's simply more crowd to hide in.
This isn't a perfect measure (underlying tech, number of users, transaction volume, value distribution, entropy quality, deterministic linkage, and other factors matter too), but it's a useful signal for the overall health of private cryptocurrency.
Chain surveillance firms exploit predictable patterns to deanonymize transactions:
The strongest privacy systems eliminate these attack surfaces by design — hiding amounts, breaking transaction graphs, and making all transactions indistinguishable from each other.
We track private digital cash — cryptocurrencies where you can send and receive value without exposing your balance, amount, or identity on-chain. Either the entire coin is private by default, or there's a measurable privacy pool where users opt in.
We don't track privacy infrastructure (mixnets, VPNs), computational privacy (shielded smart contracts with transparent tokens), or data privacy platforms. The focus is money that moves privately between people.
Private by default (16): Beam, Beldex, Dero, Epic Cash, Firo*, Grin, Monero, MimbleWimbleCoin, Particl, Pirate Chain, Secret Network, Tari, Wownero, XELIS, Zano*, Zephyr Protocol
Privacy pools & protocols (9):
*Compliance/censorship features (interface-level, optional — Aztec, Firo, Railgun, Zano). MimbleWimble projects have known linkability limitations. Secret Network uses TEE (hardware trust, not cryptography). See caveats below.
Cryptocurrencies where all transactions are private. Full market cap = private value.
| Project | Privacy Tech | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Beam (BEAM) | MimbleWimble + LelantusMW | Privacy by default. MimbleWimble with LelantusMW shielded pool (one-out-of-many proofs). Dandelion++ for network-layer privacy. Confidential assets support. 20% block reward treasury (first 5 years, now BeamX DAO). Paper |
| Beldex (BDX) | Ring Signatures + RingCT + Stealth Addresses | Monero fork. Switched from PoW to PoS with masternode consensus (12-node groups, 30s blocks). Ecosystem includes BelNet VPN, BChat messenger, and Beldex Browser. Paper |
| Dero (DERO) | Homomorphic Encryption (DERO-HE) | Unique approach. Migrated from CryptoNote to custom DERO Homomorphic Encryption Blockchain Protocol (DHEBP). All transactions and smart contracts operate on encrypted data. Paper |
| Firo (FIRO)* | Lelantus Spark | Zero-knowledge proofs with no trusted setup. Spark addresses hide amounts and are unsearchable on-chain. Spark Assets (live Nov 2025) enables private token creation sharing the same anonymity pool. *See caveats. Paper |
| Grin (GRIN) | MimbleWimble | No addresses. Cut-through removes spent outputs. Pedersen commitments. Cuckatoo32+ PoW (memory-bound). Linear emission of 1 GRIN/second forever — no supply cap. No premine, no ICO, community-donation funded. Paper |
| Monero (XMR) | Ring Signatures (CLSAG) + RingCT + Stealth Addresses + Bulletproofs+ | Gold standard. CLSAG ring signatures hide sender, RingCT hides amounts, stealth addresses hide recipient. FCMP++ replaces ring signatures with full-chain membership proofs (stressnet testing underway). Paper |
| MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) | MimbleWimble | Grin fork. Hard-capped at 20M supply (vs Grin's infinite emission). 6M airdropped to BTC holders. Cuckatoo C31 PoW. Paper |
| Epic Cash (EPIC) | MimbleWimble | Triple PoW: RandomX (CPU, 48%), ProgPow (GPU, 48%), CuckAToo31+ (ASIC, 4%) with independent difficulty per algorithm. 21M hard cap with Bitcoin-style halvings. Tor bundled natively for all node communication. Paper |
| Particl (PART) | CT + RingCT + Stealth Addresses + Bulletproofs | Bitcoin Core-based with multi-level privacy: public, blind (CT hides amounts), and anon (RingCT hides sender + amounts). Decentralized marketplace. Paper |
| Pirate Chain (ARRR) | zk-SNARKs (Zcash Sapling) | Shielded-only Zcash Sapling fork. No transparent addresses allowed. Komodo dPoW notarizes to Litecoin for 51% attack resistance. Orchard upgrade (Halo 2, no trusted setup) in progress. Paper |
| Secret Network (SCRT) | TEE (Intel SGX) | Private value transfer via encrypted computation in secure enclaves. Token transfers hide sender, receiver, and amount. Privacy is real but hardware-dependent (see caveats). Paper |
| Tari (XTM) | MimbleWimble | Monero merge-mined (RandomX + SHA3x dual mining). MimbleWimble with Pedersen commitments and cut-through for private, scalable L1. L2 Ootle uses Cerberus sharded BFT for sub-second finality. Burn XTM to mint XTR for L2 dapps. RFCs |
| Wownero (WOW) | Ring Signatures + RingCT + Stealth Addresses | Monero fork. Ring size 22. RandomWOW (lite RandomX, 1MB scratchpad). Fixed 184M supply with no tail emission. No premine. Paper |
| XELIS (XEL) | Homomorphic Encryption (ElGamal) | BlockDAG with private amounts and balances. Smart contracts with encrypted execution. Similar approach to Dero. Built in Rust. Paper |
| Zano (ZANO)* | Ring Signatures (CLSAG) + Stealth Addresses + Bulletproofs+ | Founded by Andrey Sabelnikov (crypto_zoidberg), who wrote the original CryptoNote implementation that Monero forked from. Evolved from Boolberry (2014). Hybrid PoW/PoS with confidential assets support. fUSD (Freedom Dollar) private stablecoin live. *See caveats. Paper |
| Zephyr Protocol (ZEPH) | Ring Signatures + RingCT + Stealth Addresses | Monero fork. Three-asset Djed variant: ZEPH (RandomX PoW base), ZSD (stablecoin, 400% min collateral), ZRS (reserve shares absorb volatility for fees/leverage). Dual oracles (spot + moving average). All conversions fully private. Paper |
Systems where privacy is optional. We track value in private pools, not total market cap.
| Project | Privacy Tech | What We Track |
|---|---|---|
| Aztec (ETH)* | zk-SNARKs (Honk/UltraPlonk) | Privacy L2 rollup TVL. Honk proving system (evolved PLONK) with UltraPlonk for on-chain verification. Noir smart contract language. Ignition Chain mainnet Nov 2025; 3,400+ sequencers, transactions expected early 2026. *See caveats. PLONK Paper |
| Decred CSPP (DCR) | CoinShuffle++ | DCR mixed via decentralized CoinShuffle++ protocol. % of supply shown. Paper |
| Litecoin MWEB (LTC) | MimbleWimble Extension Blocks | LTC pegged into MW extension blocks. 400K+ LTC locked, 90%+ node validation. % of supply shown. LIP-0003 |
| Namada MASP (NAM) | MASP (zk-SNARKs, Sapling-derived) | Multi-Asset Shielded Pool on Cosmos L1. Any IBC asset can be shielded. Mainnet Dec 2024. TVL tracked from DefiLlama. Spec |
| Railgun (ETH)* | zk-SNARKs (Groth16) | 54 zk-SNARK circuits with trusted setup. TVL across chains (ETH, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum). Shielded DeFi balances. Integrated into Ethereum Foundation Kohaku toolkit. *See caveats. Docs |
| Samourai Whirlpool (BTC) | ZeroLink CoinJoin | Unspent BTC capacity in pools. ZeroLink collaborative transactions with equal outputs, 5+ participants, 100% entropy. Founders sentenced Nov 2025 (5yr/4yr). Original infrastructure seized. Theory |
| Ashigaru Whirlpool (BTC) | ZeroLink CoinJoin | Samourai fork continuing Whirlpool after arrests. Same protocol, separate liquidity pool. |
| Tornado Cash (ETH) | zk-SNARKs (Groth16) | TVL in mixing pools. Fixed-denomination deposits with trusted setup. OFAC sanctions lifted March 2025. Roman Storm convicted Aug 2025 (money transmission); acquitted on sanctions. Retrial pending on money laundering. Paper |
| Zcash Shielded (ZEC) | zk-SNARKs (Halo 2) | ZEC in shielded pools: Sprout (legacy), Sapling (Groth16), Orchard (Halo 2 - no trusted setup). % of supply shown (live on tracker). 20% Founders Reward (first 4 years), ongoing dev fund from block rewards. Spec |
Projects marked with * have optional compliance/audit features built in:
Why we still track these: These are interface-level compliance features, not protocol-level censorship. These features exist at the application layer, not the protocol layer. The underlying privacy guarantees remain intact.
These aren't compliance backdoors, but protocol trade-offs worth understanding:
We include all these projects because they still provide meaningful privacy, but users should understand the trade-offs.
Projects we're monitoring for potential inclusion:
| Project | Privacy Tech | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CashFusion (BCH) | CoinJoin | Privacy mixing on BCH. Looking for active liquidity or TVL metric. |
| Cloak (SOL)* | Stealth Addresses + zk-SNARKs (Groth16) | Solana privacy pools with stealth addresses and ZK proofs. Permissionless, decentralized relayers. Optional viewing keys. Needs TVL metric. |
| Conceal (CCX) | CryptoNote (CN-GPU) | Private-by-default CryptoNote coin. CN-GPU PoW + cold staking (lock periods for 2.9-6% interest). Encrypted on-chain messaging. Not a zombie — 10+ repos pushed in 2026, single core dev (Acktarius) but broad ecosystem (wallet, explorer, pool, faucet). v6.7.3 released Aug 2025. ~₿3.5 market cap, NonKyc only. Very small but genuinely maintained. |
| Dash PrivateSend (DASH) | CoinJoin | Pioneered CoinJoin mixing but abandoned privacy narrative. Less than 1% of transactions use PrivateSend, 40%+ de-anonymizable. Chainalysis claims 99% traceability. No public API or dashboard for mixing stats — may reconsider if metric found. See: CoinJoin in the Wild (ESORICS 2021). |
| DarkFi (DARK) | Anonymous Smart Contracts | Private DAOs, anonymous execution. PoW alpha testnet Dec 2025 (switched from PoS to RandomX). Monero merge-mining planned. Will add at mainnet. |
| Ghost Privacy (GHOST) | RingCT (Particl fork) | McAfee-era Particl fork with RingCT + Confidential Transactions, PoS. Zero commits since Feb 2024 (sole dev bleach86). Dandelion++/Bulletproofs++ roadmap claims — no code exists. Chain running on PoS stakers. ~₿8 market cap, ~$268 daily volume, TradeOgre only. X account active, gets community questions. Monitoring. |
| GhostwareOS (GHOST)* | Unverified (Solana) | Whitepaper describes zk-SNARKs, stealth addresses, and on-chain shielding pool (GhostVault) — but admits "still in prototype stage" with testing on devnet only. No custom Solana programs deployed on mainnet, no public GitHub, no deployed program IDs. GhostPay/GhostSwap route through HoudiniSwap (mandatory OFAC/AML, Tor blocking, geo-blocking, 72hr data retention). Gap between whitepaper vision and actual deployment is significant. |
| Intmax (ETH) | Stateless ZK-Plasma | Stateless L3 on Scroll (funds on Ethereum). ~5 bytes/tx. Two withdrawal suspensions in 7 months (2025-2026). ~$1.6M TVL. Stage 0, 2/4 multisig. Novel tech but reliability concerns. |
| Iron Fish (IRON) | zk-SNARKs (Sapling-derived) | All transactions private by default. PoW L1, multi-asset shielded pool. Strong tech but serious compliance red flags: ChainPort bridge can freeze assets and burn flagged funds, predictive AI flagging, planned DAO governance over frozen funds. a16z-backed project, dev team acquired by Coinbase (March 2025). See Safety blog post. |
| Navio (NAV) | blsCT (BLS + Confidential Transactions) | Private-by-default with Proof-of-Private-Stake. Still testnet. |
| NEAR Confidential Mode | TEE (Intel TDX) | Launched Feb 2026 at NEARCON. Near.com "super app" with confidential balances/transfers/trading. TEE-based privacy (hardware trust, not cryptographic). No measurable shielded pool yet — monitoring for implementation details. |
| Nerva (XNV) | CryptoNote (Cryptonight Adaptive) | CryptoNote/Monero fork. CPU-only solo mining, no pools allowed — truly decentralized mining. Private-by-default. Community revival underway: NonKyc listing Jan 2026, Nerva Quest engagement platform, NervaOne wallet actively developed. v0.2.0.0 "Legacy Reborn" (Oct 2024) after 2.5yr gap. ~₿15 market cap, single exchange. Needs second exchange and market cap growth. |
| Penumbra (UM) | Multi-Asset Shielded Pool (zk-SNARKs) | Fully shielded by default. Private staking, ZSwap DEX (sealed-bid batch auctions). IBC-compatible (first non-Cosmos-SDK chain with IBC). Multi-asset shielded pool (any IBC token). Penumbra Labs wound down April 2025 — Radiant Commons (nonprofit, led by Josh Cincinnati ex-Zcash Foundation) continuing development. v2.1.1 released Jan 2026. ~₿8 market cap, Osmosis only. Closest competitor to Namada MASP. Monitoring for organizational stability. |
| PIVX (PIVX)* | zk-SNARKs (Zcash Sapling) | Optional SHIELD privacy. Only 1% of supply shielded (~0.75M PIV, ~₿0.7). Can't stake while shielded, disincentivizing use. v6.0 planned: shielded staking could grow pool. Full compliance toolkit. Monitoring for v6.0 impact and growth. Shield supply chart. |
| Salvium (SAL)* | RingCT (Monero fork) | Monero-grade P2P privacy. Previously listed as compliance — MiCA toolkit is opt-in, not protocol-enforced. "Compliant privacy" branding but no mandatory features. Small/new. |
| Serai DEX (SRI) | Cross-chain Private Swaps | Decentralized exchange for private coins. Still in development. |
| TEN Protocol (TEN) | TEE (Intel SGX, Confidential L2) | Ethereum L2 with encrypted execution via Intel SGX TEEs. TGE shipped Nov 2025, mainnet still not live (testnet only as of Mar 2026). Token launched before product. "Smart Transparency" — developer-controlled privacy with mandatory revelation windows. Selective disclosure for regulators built in. WireTap SGX attack (Oct 2025) same vulnerability class as Secret Network. Compliance-first design. |
| Wasabi Wallet (BTC) | CoinJoin (WabiSabi) | Not ZeroLink. Deterministic links, peel chains, poor entropy, unverifiable anon set, no change segregation, no pre/post-mix segregation, no free remixing, reshuffles same users, shaves UTXOs to dust, address reuse history. No measurable pool metrics. 100+ user arrests. May reconsider if metric found. |
These projects use privacy tech (ZK proofs, TEEs, mixnets) but not for private value transfer. They're infrastructure, computation platforms, or messaging tokens — not digital cash.
| Project | Issue |
|---|---|
| Midnight (NIGHT) | Not a privacy coin. NIGHT (value token) is fully transparent. DUST (shielded token) is non-transferable — cannot be used as private currency. Privacy computation platform for data/smart contracts, not value transfer. Hoskinson: "Midnight is not a privacy coin." |
| Nym (NYM) | Mixnet privacy infrastructure (incentivized Tor). NYM token is transparent — privacy is at the network layer (mixing internet packets), not value transfer. No shielded pool or private value to measure. |
| Oasis Network (ROSE) | Enterprise confidential computing, not a privacy coin. ROSE transfers are fully transparent — all balances and transactions visible in explorer. Uses TEEs for data privacy in smart contracts, but no private value transfer. Same tech family as Secret Network, but Secret encrypts money; Oasis only encrypts compute. |
| Session (SESH) | Privacy messenger token. OXEN (privacy coin) deprecated May 2025, migrated to SESH — an Ethereum-compatible token for Session messenger. Team explicitly states "not a privacy coin." |
| Starknet (STRK) | ZK-rollup scaling solution for Ethereum. Uses ZK-STARKs for validity proofs (compression/scaling), but all transactions are fully transparent on-chain. ZK tech is for scalability, not privacy. |
| Project | Issue |
|---|---|
| JoinMarket (BTC) | CoinJoin market with maker/taker model. Not ZeroLink — deterministic linkage between inputs and outputs, peel chains, mediocre entropy. No measurable pool metrics or active liquidity data. |
| Lightning Network (BTC) | Scaling solution, not a privacy protocol. Invoices expose node pubkey which links to IP, channel balances, on-chain fingerprints, and tx history from channel opens/closes. Routing nodes observe payment flows. Probing attacks reveal exact balances. Chainalysis offers LN surveillance to exchanges and government agencies (FBI, IRS, DEA). Network highly centralized (major hubs see most traffic). Most wallets custodial. See: Empirical Analysis of Privacy in LN, Cross-Layer Deanonymization. |
| Alias (ALIAS) | Dead project. Stealth addresses + ring signatures, but last meaningful commit Aug 2021, core dev silent 3+ years. Less than 1 tx/day, ~$360 daily volume on micro-exchanges. Opt-in privacy (dual coin model). Zombie chain running on automated stakers. |
| Verge (XVG) | Tor/I2P for IP obfuscation + optional stealth addresses, but blockchain is fully transparent. No private value to track. |
We exclude projects with mandatory protocol-level compliance. These aren't privacy tools with optional compliance - they're surveillance infrastructure with optional privacy theater.
| Project | Issue |
|---|---|
| Aleo (ALEO) | View keys baked into every account by design. Account View Key reveals ALL transactions past and future. ARC-0100 governance proposal passed for OFAC screening on bridges. a16z, Sequoia backed. |
| Aleph Zero (AZERO) | Anonymity Revokers designed into protocol — governance can trigger deanonymization. Coinfirm AML integration active. "Compliant privacy" is their own term. |
| Concordium (CCD) | Protocol-level mandatory identity — cannot create account without verified ID. Removed shielded transactions under regulatory pressure. Partners with ABN Amro, Fidelity, Standard Chartered. |
| COTI (COTI) | CEO stated "100% anonymous is illegal." Bank of Israel Digital Shekel finalist. ECB Digital Euro Pioneer Partner. V2 mainnet March 2025 with Garbled Circuits for selective disclosure. |
| Dusk (DUSK) | "Zero-Knowledge Compliance" is their tagline. Team says "not a privacy coin." Platform purpose is tokenized securities (XSC) with mandatory KYC. MiCA-compliant. NPEX integrated. Mainnet Jan 7, 2026. |
| Horizen (ZEN) | Migrated to Base L3 (July–Dec 2025). Shielded pools deprecated at consensus level (ZenIP 42204). All privacy features removed. Now "regulatory-compliant privacy" via selective disclosure on Solidity frameworks. |
| Privacy Cash (SOL) | Solana mixer with CipherOwl address screening at deposit layer — flagged wallets rejected by relayer. Selective disclosure/view keys for regulators. Anonymous team, no whitepaper. |
| Privacy Pools (ETH) | Association Set Providers gate withdrawals — must prove deposit is in "clean" set. Paper co-authored by Vitalik Buterin and Chainalysis. Coinbase Ventures backed. Compliance is the mechanism, not optional. |
| Wasabi Wallet (BTC) | Proactively blacklisted UTXOs via chain analysis integration "with no legislation requiring them to do so." zkSNACKs shut down June 2024. See also: Insufficient Privacy. |
Data refreshes approximately every 90 seconds.