The past week witnessed a severe downturn for major privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, with Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) falling 28.9% and 33.4% respectively. Monero's price dropped to $311.40 from a weekly high of $487.87, while Zcash fell to $221.61 from $341.46. In stark contrast, the smaller privacy blockchain Zano (ZANO) declined a mere 1.4%, trading around $8.63.
The sell-off occurred against a backdrop of extreme market fear. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunged to 9 on February 6, 2026, down from 16 a week prior, signaling 'extreme fear.' This sentiment triggered over $2.60 billion in total crypto market liquidations within 24 hours, with long positions accounting for $2.13 billion of that total.
No definitive reason was identified for ZANO's relative stability. The project, founded by an original Monero contributor, differentiates itself by supporting Confidential Assets for creating privacy-protected tokens. Its 2026 roadmap outlines major upgrades, including hard forks to introduce Gateway Addresses and a full transition to Proof-of-Stake consensus. Approximately 70% of ZANO's circulating supply was reportedly staked as of August 2025, potentially reducing sell-side pressure.
Concurrently, analysis articles highlighted ZEC and XMR as long-term accumulation targets for February 2026, citing their strong fundamentals. Zcash's planned transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake and Monero's community-driven, fungibility-focused design were noted as key value propositions during a market phase favoring steady planning over short-term speculation.
