A few months ago, when people talked about crypto privacy, the conversation was mostly about anonymous payments. Now, the story looks much bigger. Privacy is gradually moving into trading, cross-chain settlement and DeFi and that shift is starting to show up in the market. Two projects I’m watching closely are ZEC and NEAR, but for very different reasons. $ZEC is strengthening the core privacy narrative. The Ironwood emergency upgrade is complete, while NU7 passed with around 99.9% voting weight, targeting a 25-second block time. Grayscale’s ZCSH also adds another layer of institutional exposure to the privacy-coin narrative. $NEAR is approaching privacy from the infrastructure side. Private deposits and withdrawals are becoming the default, its connection with Hyperliquid opens the door to privacy-focused perpetual trading, while NEAR Intents continues expanding cross-chain execution. For me, the interesting part is how this narrative connects with actual trading. I’ve been watching ZEC and NEAR on Bitget because having privacy-related assets alongside deep liquidity and perpetual markets makes it easier to follow the narrative from an actual trader’s perspective. ZEC → private money & transactions,, NEAR → private trading & cross-chain execution Different approaches, but part of the same bigger shift: Crypto may be moving toward transparency when needed, and privacy when it matters. That’s a narrative I’ll be watching closely.