Silicon Valley guru Naval ignites a big pump of ZEC by 370%! Reviewing the next dark horse in the narrative of "Privacy Coin".

With 2.9 million followers, Silicon Valley legendary investor Naval Ravikant's statement “Zcash is insurance against Bitcoin” has ignited a long-dormant narrative around Privacy Coins. ZEC skyrocketed from $53 to $230, with a monthly increase of over 370%, while Railgun surged 240% during the same period. Behind this revival of old coins lies a reassessment of technical value or is it pro lifting them up? Can privacy projects like Aster and Umbra take the baton?

Naval's one-liner ignites ZEC: from 53 USD to 230 USD in a frenzy

The cryptocurrency market in October not only belongs to the lively new Meme coins in the Chinese circle, but also to the unexpected resurgence of some long-forgotten “Dino Coins.” ZEC (Zcash) is the brightest star in this celebration of old coins being called out anew. From a low of about 53 dollars at the end of September, it skyrocketed to 230 dollars within a week after the National Day holiday, achieving a monthly increase of over 370%. This mature token, which once pioneered the Privacy Coin track but gradually faded in popularity, suddenly became the focus of the market again.

What drove this big pump of ZEC was neither rumors of large institutional purchases nor any major technical upgrade announcements; the direct trigger surprisingly came from a tweet. On October 1, Silicon Valley legendary investor Naval Ravikant, who has 2.9 million followers, threw out a highly controversial viewpoint on the X platform: “Bitcoin is insurance against fiat, and Zcash is insurance against Bitcoin.” This statement is concise and powerful, immediately sparking intense discussions in the cryptocurrency community.

Naval's core argument points out a fundamental weakness of Bitcoin: the lack of privacy. He elaborates in subsequent tweets that Bitcoin's public ledger makes all transaction records permanently traceable, which means that even “Satoshi Nakamoto” himself cannot safely use the Bitcoin he mined, because once these coins move, the whole world will know. For large holders, businesses, or any users who value financial privacy, this complete transparency can become a security risk and a psychological burden.

In contrast, ZEC uses Zero-Knowledge Proof technology, which can completely hide key information such as the sender, receiver, and amount of the transaction, while still allowing the network to verify the validity of the transaction. Naval emphasizes that Zcash is not a competitor to Bitcoin, but rather a complement, providing solutions for scenarios that require privacy protection. This positioning cleverly avoids direct confrontation with Bitcoin, instead framing ZEC as a necessary extension of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The market's reaction to Naval's viewpoint was immediate. His tweet garnered 2.9 million views, triggering a series of follow-ups from well-known figures. Industry opinion leaders such as former a16z CTO Balaji Srinivasan and Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz took to social media to support the Privacy Coin narrative, further amplifying market sentiment. The discussion volume on ZEC and Privacy Coins on social media skyrocketed, and the previously cooled topic of “Privacy Coin narrative” suddenly heated up again. Timeline-wise, Naval's tweet coincided closely with ZEC's big pump, which is not a coincidence but a direct manifestation of influence.

Interest Related? Controversy Over the Old Coin's New Shout by Silicon Valley Pro

Naval Ravikant is a prominent name in the Silicon Valley investment circle. As a co-founder of AngelList, he created this startup financing platform valued at $4 billion, fundamentally changing the way startups raise funds. His personal investment track record is also impressive, having early invested in over 200 companies, including Uber and Twitter, many of which have become unicorns or public companies. In the cryptocurrency space, Naval's qualifications are equally solid. In 2014, he co-founded MetaStable Capital, one of the earliest cryptocurrency hedge funds, which reportedly achieved an astonishing 540% return in 2017.

However, this time calling for ZEC is not a completely neutral technical discussion; there are actually unspoken interests behind it. A review of multiple public reports reveals that as early as 2015, Naval invested $715,000 in a company called Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, which later changed its name to Electric Coin Company, the very company that developed Zcash. In addition, Naval served as a board member of the Zcash Foundation, giving him a certain influence in governance decisions.

These conflicts of interest have led to criticism from the community regarding Naval's recent promotion of old coins. Many question whether he is using his immense influence to elevate the value of his early investment portfolio projects, suggesting that this seemingly neutral technical review is actually aimed at pumping the value of the assets he holds. In the cryptocurrency circle, this behavior is referred to as “shouting orders,” which might be severely criticized if coming from an ordinary KOL, but when the protagonist is an investment pro like Naval, the situation becomes delicate.

Interestingly, Naval remains silent on these doubts, neither admitting nor denying that he still holds ZEC or shares in related companies, and he has not responded to the issue of conflict of interest. From one perspective, he might believe he is merely expressing a technical viewpoint, and how the market reacts is beyond his control. But from another perspective, a person with 2.9 million followers and significant influence in the investment circle should disclose potential conflicts of interest when publicly expressing views on an asset; this is basic investment ethics.

Regardless of the controversy, Naval's influence is clearly reflected in the price. Since he tweeted his call, ZEC has seen a pump of over 300%, with market capitalization increasing by billions of dollars. For investors who bought in immediately after the tweet, this has been a lucrative gain; however, for retail investors chasing the pump at high prices, they may face the risk of a pullback after the celebrity effect wanes. This case again reminds us that in the cryptocurrency market, even the words of the most prestigious investors need to be viewed critically, especially when there are potential conflicts of interest.

Privacy Coin Narrative Chain Reaction: RAIL big pump 240% Sentiment Spillover

Naval's calls not only pushed up ZEC, but the sentiment of the Privacy Coin narrative has spread throughout the entire sector, creating a chain reaction. The biggest dark horse among them is Railgun (RAIL), a relatively niche Privacy Coin that surged 240% during the same period, soaring from $1.79 to a peak of $4.83. Even more astonishing is that RAIL's 24-hour trading volume exploded by 1270%, demonstrating the frenzy of capital inflow.

The big pump of Railgun is not simply due to the emotional spillover from ZEC; it also has its own catalytic events. On October 9, the Ethereum Foundation released the Kohaku privacy roadmap, which specifically mentioned the integration of Railgun's zk-multisig technology, one of the privacy features favored by Vitalik Buterin. When a top public chain like Ethereum clearly expresses its intention to adopt a certain project's technology, the market will naturally reassess the value of that project. Railgun has suddenly transformed from a marginal privacy protocol into an important component of the Ethereum privacy roadmap, and this elevation of status has far more long-term significance than mere price speculation.

In addition to ZEC and RAIL, other Privacy Coins have also experienced a good pump. Established Privacy Coins like Monero (XMR), Dash, and Horizen have all recorded double-digit pumps, indicating a renewed market focus on the entire Privacy Coin narrative. Interestingly, during the big pump of ZEC, Grayscale also announced the reopening of its Zcash Trust for private placement, providing a compliant channel for institutional funds to enter ZEC. From the data on Grayscale's official website, it can be seen that the current asset management scale of the Zcash Trust has reached approximately 85 million USD, with the price per share increasing by 340% within 6 months.

After these messages were released, the market began to reassess the investment value of the Privacy Coin sector. Although it is difficult to fully quantify specific capital inflow data, the increase in social heat is very intuitive. On Twitter, Reddit, and various cryptocurrency forums, discussions about Privacy Coins suddenly transformed from almost nonexistent to a hot topic. Many investors have started to study the technical differences, team backgrounds, and development roadmaps of various Privacy Coins, trying to find the next potential target for a big pump.

However, it is important to be cautious as this emotionally driven sector rotation often comes quickly and goes just as fast. The narrative around Privacy Coins has been on the fringes for the past few years, primarily due to regulatory pressures. Governments around the world have taken a hostile stance towards Privacy Coins, and many exchanges have delisted major Privacy Coins. These structural barriers have not disappeared due to a wave of speculation. Investors need to distinguish between short-term emotional rebounds and long-term fundamental improvements, avoiding blindly chasing highs when the heat is at its peak.

In addition to ZEC, these privacy projects are worth paying attention to

With the revival of the Privacy Coin narrative, in addition to the significantly pumped ZEC and RAIL, the market is starting to look for the next potential project that could benefit. The following three projects may be worth paying attention to due to their unique technological positioning and development stages.

1. Aster: On-chain privacy trading in dark pool mode

Aster has recently maintained its popularity due to the meme craze in the Chinese community, but few people have noticed its innovations in privacy. As a decentralized exchange for perpetual contracts on the blockchain, one of Aster's highlights is the “Hidden Orders” feature, which is essentially a dark pool mode. It allows the size, price, and direction of orders to be completely invisible before execution, and only confirms the results on-chain after the transaction is completed.

This mechanism protects traders from MEV attacks, frontrunning, and liquidation sniping through zero-knowledge proofs. In traditional finance, dark pools are an important tool for large traders to protect themselves from market sniping, but implementing dark pools in the transparent environment of blockchain is highly challenging. Aster's technological innovation addresses this pain point, which may gain more attention in the context of the rising narrative around Privacy Coins. Binance co-founder CZ recently publicly expressed the view that Aster's privacy design surpasses that of Hyperliquid, providing important endorsement for the project.

Under the dual overlay of the meme craze in the Chinese community and the narrative of Privacy Coins, the ASTER token itself may still be worth paying attention to. With a current market capitalization of around 3 billion USD, it is no longer considered cheap, but if the demand for private transactions truly explodes, as one of the few platforms offering on-chain privacy derivative trading, Aster may attract more professional traders and institutional funds.

2. Umbra: Auditable Privacy on Solana

From October 6 to 8, the Solana privacy protocol Umbra conducted its ICO on the MetaDAO futarchy platform. The original fundraising target was $7.5 million, but it ultimately overshot to over $10 million, demonstrating strong market demand for privacy solutions within the Solana ecosystem. Umbra's core value lies in providing a “stealth mode” for Solana: through client-side encryption and Arcium's multi-party computation (MPC) technology, users can carry out private transfers without sacrificing the blockchain's verifiability and speed.

Unlike completely anonymous Monero, Umbra has a built-in compliance framework that creates encrypted links between private and public wallets through auditor programs, disclosing information only under court orders. This “auditable privacy” meets users' needs for financial privacy while avoiding regulatory risks similar to Tornado Cash. In an environment where regulatory agencies in various countries are becoming increasingly strict on privacy tools, this balance may be key to the survival of privacy projects.

Currently, the privacy projects related to Solana are in the early stages compared to Ethereum. Solana has always been known for its speed and performance, but privacy protection has been a shortcoming of its ecosystem. If Umbra can succeed, it may attract professional traders in the Solana ecosystem who need to prevent front-running, high-net-worth users who require bank-level confidentiality, and institutions seeking compliant privacy tools. Public information shows that Umbra plans to launch its mainnet in Q1 2026, which provides investors with a relatively clear timeline to assess the project's progress.

It is worth mentioning that MetaDAO, the financing platform for Umbra, has seen its token META increase by approximately 191% in the past 30 days. MetaDAO adopts a futarchy mechanism (a governance model based on prediction markets) for decision-making, and this innovative governance approach is also worth paying attention to, but this belongs to another topic related to the launchpad mechanism.

Ethereum Kohaku Roadmap: Privacy from the Edge to the Core

On October 8, the Ethereum Foundation officially released the Kohaku Privacy Roadmap, marking the first strategic move in Ethereum's history to elevate privacy from a peripheral protocol to a core concern. Kohaku is a modular open-source SDK (software development kit) that provides privacy primitives for wallets, allowing developers to easily integrate strong cryptographic features. This initiative is personally endorsed by Vitalik Buterin and established a 47-member Privacy Cluster team to coordinate cross-organizational efforts.

The core functions of Kohaku include: lightweight client validation (in-browser validation to avoid trusting RPC nodes that leak IP addresses), private transaction streaming (integrating privacy protocols such as Railgun), identity and credential systems (zero-knowledge identity proofs), and anti-censorship communication layers. If these functions are successfully integrated into mainstream Ethereum wallets, they will significantly enhance the level of privacy protection across the entire ecosystem.

For investors, the significance of the Kohaku roadmap lies in its confirmation of the Ethereum Foundation's long-term commitment to privacy technology. This is not a short-term hype, but a multi-year technical roadmap. Privacy projects that can collaborate with the Ethereum Foundation and have their technology adopted into the core infrastructure (such as Railgun) may gain lasting value support. Additionally, other projects providing privacy solutions for Ethereum, such as Aztec Network, may also benefit from this strategic shift.

Privacy Coin Investment Logic and Risk Warning

With the revival of the Privacy Coin narrative, investors need to understand the unique logic and risks of this sector. The value proposition of Privacy Coins is built on a fundamental premise: in a world where digital surveillance is becoming increasingly prevalent, financial privacy is becoming a scarce and valuable resource. While the transparency of Bitcoin and most blockchains guarantees auditability, it also makes all transaction records permanently public, which is a real issue for large holders and privacy-conscious users.

In the long term, the supporting factors for the Privacy Coin narrative include: the promotion of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) by governments around the world, which will give governments unprecedented financial monitoring capabilities and may drive more people to seek privacy alternatives; the continuous advancement of blockchain analysis technology, making it increasingly easier to trace funds on transparent chains like Bitcoin; and the genuine demand for financial privacy from high-net-worth individuals and institutions. If these trends continue, the demand for Privacy Coins may grow in the long term.

However, the risks cannot be ignored. The biggest risk is regulatory crackdowns, as governments around the world adopt a hostile attitude towards Privacy Coins, believing they facilitate money laundering, tax evasion, and other illegal activities. Many mainstream exchanges have already delisted Privacy Coins, and more restrictions may come in the future. Liquidity risk is also a concern; due to the delisting by exchanges, many Privacy Coins have relatively poor liquidity, and large trades may face slippage issues. Technical risks also exist, as vulnerabilities in cryptographic systems or the development of quantum computing could threaten the security of Privacy Coins.

Regarding the recent big pump of ZEC, investors need to be cautious of the short-lived celebrity effect. Naval's call indeed ignited market sentiment, but when the heat fades and no new catalysts emerge, the price may retrace. Those investors who chased the pump at high levels might face losses. A more rational strategy is to treat Privacy Coins as a small allocation in the investment portfolio, similar to thematic investing or hedging, rather than making heavy bets. Closely monitor regulatory dynamics, technological developments, and changes in the attitudes of major exchanges, as these are key factors influencing the price of Privacy Coins.