ZEC is up only 2.3%, but Firo is up 37.6%.

This mismatch is basically the whole story of today’s privacy sector. Zcash (ZEC) ranks #9 by market cap and is up 2.3% over the past 24 hours—calm in a way that doesn’t feel like a leader. What really moves are the two layers beneath: Firo (FIRO) is +37.6% in 24 hours, ranked #797; rsFIRO is up 33.1% alongside it, ranked #735; Zano (ZANO) is up 22.1%, ranked #254. All three are on CoinGecko’s search-trending list.

First, let’s clarify what these are. Firo used to be called Zcoin—it's for anonymous transactions, and rsFIRO is its staking derivative. Zano is also a privacy chain, focused on anonymous asset issuance. Their market caps are both outside the top 200, and Firo has even fallen to 797. These are small caps with thin liquidity—they get pumped quickly.

The catalyst isn’t them—it’s Zcash.

On September 18, CoinDesk and Decrypt both reported that Zcash plans to upgrade in November. Codenamed NU7, the upgrade will cut block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, making private payments three times faster. The same proposal also includes a provision to redirect at least 60% of transaction fees toward supplementing miner rewards starting in 2031. Set the technical details aside for now: the market saw it as a sign that “someone is still seriously working on privacy.”

There was another story that same day. Dragonfly’s Qureshi publicly called for Zcash’s developer fund to be shut down after 2028. The debate comes after ZEC’s recent rally pushed the fund’s value above $95 million. Some think there’s too much money in it; others worry the funding will dry up. Whatever the arguments, the topic has drawn real attention.

ZEC itself barely moved, so money started looking further down the list.

The path of this rotation is clear. CoinDesk’s daily market report on September 18 said Layer 2 and DeFi led gains, with Starknet and Arbitrum up more than 17%. Ninety-eight of the 100 assets in the CoinDesk 100 rose, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 5%. The broader market was up across the board, and BTC touched $81,000 that day. With plenty of money around and risk appetite back, some investors started looking at smaller-cap coins.

Privacy happened to have a catalyst, and ZEC was the only coin in the sector to rank in the top 10. Those who couldn’t afford ZEC or thought it was rising too slowly naturally turned to Firo and Zano.

But there’s something I have to point out. Firo ranks 797th by market cap and rose 37.6% in a day. Looking at the chart won’t tell you how much of that gain came from genuine buying and how much came from a few orders pushing up a coin with such thin liquidity. The 33.1% rise in rsFIRO makes this even clearer: it’s a derivative, and its market is even smaller than Firo’s.

Zano ranks 254th, so it’s a little better, but 22.1% is still a big move.

I don’t think this means the privacy narrative is back across the board. ZEC’s 2.3% gain says it all: the leader barely moved while the smaller names jumped around. This looks more like a catch-up rally within the sector than a broad revaluation. For a real revaluation, ZEC needs to establish a trend first, rather than rely on news of a November upgrade.

The NU7 upgrade itself is worth watching. Cutting block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds is a real change. As for the provision to use 60% of fees to supplement miner rewards, it doesn’t take effect until 2031, and a lot can change before then. Qureshi’s call to shut down the developer fund won’t be resolved until 2028. These are all long-term developments.

In the short term, sentiment is the only thing you can trade.

For a coin like Firo, ranked 797th by market cap, how it performs over the next few days after a 37.6% jump is more informative than how much it rose today.