Monero’s breakout and Zcash’s internal disruption triggered a clear re-pricing across the privacy-coin segment, putting liquidity and project durability under the microscope.
Monero (XMR) pushed above $500 on Jan. 12, 2026, with intraday prints reported around $579–$597 and a sharp +20% move over 24 hours. The same window also carried a near-40% weekly advance, signaling a fast, momentum-led bid rather than a slow grind higher.
Monero’s move looks like a liquidity magnet
The XMR rally was both rapid and concentrated, with traders driving price through prior resistance zones and keeping it pinned above the $577 area at points. Short-term technical tone in the same coverage leaned bullish, with MACD and RSI described as supportive of the move.
The more strategic read is that capital rotated within the privacy niche, concentrating attention and near-term liquidity into Monero. In practical terms, that kind of rotation can tighten spreads and deepen order books for the leader while simultaneously draining marginal liquidity from adjacent tokens.
That concentration also creates a clean “exit valve” for traders repositioning out of other privacy assets, especially when the alternative narrative is governance risk. The end result is a visible divergence: Monero absorbs the inflow, and the rest of the segment gets repriced around relative confidence.
Zcash (ZEC) sat on the other side of that trade, with the token described as down as much as 26% on the week and trading below $400, with weekend lows around $360. The sell-off was tied directly to the mass resignation of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) development team and a broader governance dispute involving asset distribution and the Bootstrap Project.
Zcash’s governance shock becomes a market variable
The ECC team’s departure was framed as a breakdown in leadership and direction, and that perception translated quickly into confidence-driven outflows. When stewardship becomes uncertain, the market typically reprices not just price risk, but roadmap risk and execution risk.
From an operational standpoint, this kind of rotation changes where the sector’s “stress” shows up: Monero’s surge raises immediate focus on exchange custody readiness and throughput under heightened trading interest. At the same time, Zcash’s situation raises questions about future maintenance, developer continuity, and release cadence—factors that matter even when the protocol itself keeps running.
Over the next several sessions, the market will effectively run two parallel tests: whether XMR can hold elevated levels toward the $775 target mentioned in the narrative, and whether ZEC can restore confidence through clearer stewardship signals. If either side fails that test, the same capital that rotated in can rotate out just as quickly.
