Monero’s XMR token eked out a 2.54% gain in the last 24 hours, extending a 7-day rally that has now piled on over 60.21%. This comes as Zcash’s ZEC token took a nosedive following the mass resignation of Electric Coin Company developers on January 7th. Governance fears spiked and confidence evaporated, sending ZEC down 15% to 26% in just one week. Meanwhile, Monero did the exact opposite, surging over 40%. More importantly, it reclaimed the crown as the top privacy coin by market cap, sitting at roughly $13 billion. This divergence wasn't a coincidence; it was a classic degen migration. Capital rotated decisively out of Zcash [ZEC] and straight into Monero [XMR]. Investors clearly preferred stability, liquidity, and a narrative that doesn't involve a team imploding. Monero now leads the pack as the market decides whether to keep running. At press time, XMR was trading around $708. Monero blasted out of its long consolidation near $420 with a spike in volume that signaled buyers were all-in. Momentum traders piled in fast, and the price sliced through $594 and $643 with the ease of a hot knife through butter. The RSI screaming above 85 shows strong trend control, not immediate weakness. This move aligns perfectly with the capital rotation happening across the privacy sector. That strength matched the uncertainty shrouding Zcash. Investors flocked to the most established privacy asset, and Monero reasserted its dominance. However, stretched momentum always increases the risk of a pause or a shallow pullback. With the higher timeframe setting the direction, lower timeframes are highlighting execution risk. On the one-hour chart, price topped near $798 before cooling off toward the $700 zone. Profit-taking emerged as short-term traders locked in gains. RSI slipped toward neutral, allowing momentum to reset. Despite this pullback, the structure remains intact. Former resistance at $643 is now acting as support as buyers continue to defend that zone. If it holds, upside continuation stays viable. However, if it breaks, a retracement toward $594 becomes likely. Is this the privacy season? Privacy coin rotation accelerated between January 7th and mid-January 2026, marking it as a clear “privacy season.” During this period, Monero rallied from roughly $420 to near $800, gaining over 40% in a week. Its market capitalization expanded from about $9.2 billion to nearly $13 billion, implying roughly $3.5-$4 billion in net capital absorption. This wasn’t an anomaly; the move was sector-wide. Dash [DASH] surged around 54%, adding an estimated $400-$500 million in market value, while smaller privacy tokens rose by around 20%. Still, flows concentrated heavily in XMR, making it the dominant privacy coin. Zcash’s decline accelerated the shift, pushing capital toward Monero as the most liquid and resilient privacy asset. All this together, Monero’s surge reflects a structural rotation, not noise. Capital exited Zcash and concentrated into XMR, driving a clear privacy season. Momentum can continue if key support holds, but a breakdown would signal exhaustion and a pause in the sector-wide rally.
