4 predictions for privacy in 2026

Opinion Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email 4 predictions for privacy in 2026 Led by Zcash, the privacy space had a breakout year in 2025. What’s coming next? By Bobbin Threadbare , Wei Dai , Khushi Wadhwa , Paul Brody | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Dec 31, 2025, 3:48 p.m. 2025 was a big year for privacy onchain. Zcash, one of the original privacy coins, jumped more than 600%, and was one of the year’s biggest success stories . Ethereum and Solana announced major initiatives to bring privacy to their networks. And startups building privacy-preserving tech with zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) continued to gain traction. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the CoinDesk Headlines Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . Influencers like Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Solana infrastructure firm Helius, said it was “Privacy Szn.” And many others said privacy was essential for institutional adoption, as companies generally don’t want to do business on public blockchains with fully transparent ledgers. So, what’s ahead for 2026? We asked five leading folks from the privacy space to make predictions. Privacy will become more practical Bobbin Threadbare, co-founder of Miden In 2026, it will become clear that privacy isn't binary. Neither full transparency nor absolute privacy are workable in the real world because, while privacy is essential for honest users, it can also be used by criminals and other nefarious actors to evade law enforcement and harm the very same honest users. In 2026, people will start accepting the notion that we should be willing to make tradeoffs that curtail privacy in a limited number of contexts to make the protocols more threat-resistant (i.e., difficult to exploit by criminals and other nefarious actors). A good framework here could be to provide conditional privacy for high-risk transactions, while providing full privacy for low-risk transactions, mimicking, to some extent, how cash works in the real world. The year of private stablecoins Khushi Wadhwa , head of business development at Predicate In 2026, private stablecoins will emerge as a core layer of global payment infrastructure onchain. We will see increased development of stablecoins that embed configurable privacy by default, spanning selective disclosure, transaction amount obfuscation, and, in some cases, full sender-receiver anonymity. This growth will be driven by pragmatic payment settlement needs. Enterprises will require confidentiality to protect sensitive commercial relationships and treasury movements, while retail users will increasingly reject fully transparent payment rails. Importantly, these systems will not exist outside regulation; instead, they will integrate policy controls that allow compliance without sacrificing baseline privacy. The net effect will be a redefinition of what “compliant payments” mean onchain, with private stablecoins becoming the preferred medium for both institutional settlement and everyday transactions. Privacy will be industrialized Paul Brody, EY global blockchain leader 2026 is the year that privacy starts to get industrialized onchain. Multiple solutions are out there and heading from testnet into production, from Aztec to Nightfall to Railgun, COTI, and others. Things will get more challenging, however, as few consumer-facing wallets support these capabilities yet and the approach to regulatory compliance will likely still be all over the map as well. Scale won’t come until many of these issues are resolved, but this is the beginning of a shift from theory to practice. ‘Threat-resistance’ will be normal Wei Dai, 1kx, Research Partner Threat-resistant onchain privacy – where blockchains are designed to be nearly impervious to data tampering and unauthorized tampering – will become the widely accepted default. Instead of fixating on idealistic, theoretical privacy guarantees, more projects will focus on shipping pragmatic privacy solutions that help individuals and businesses move onchain while deterring malicious actors from misusing privacy protocols to launder hacked funds. Threat-resistant privacy includes two categories of solutions: (1) throttled privacy solutions implement deposit delays and limit in-protocol transfers, and (2) responsible privacy solutions that operate without velocity limit, where an information custodian is responsible for tracing of the transaction graph in the event of any malicious hacks. Privacy Zcash Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates . More For You KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market By CoinDesk Research Dec 22, 2025 Commissioned by KuCoin KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market. What to know : KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025 , equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month , marking its strongest year on record. This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume , as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes , which slowed during periods of lower market volatility. Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split , each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line. Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity , reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover. Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity , indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes. View Full Report More For You The clock is ticking for crypto tax loss harvesting By Shehan Chandrasekera | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Dec 22, 2025 Investors might be able to take advantage of the recent crypto market downturn in order to lower their taxable income. Read full story Latest Crypto News Lighter trading platform sees $250 million withdrawn 24 hours after airdrop 20 minutes ago Trump Media to distribute new digital tokens to DJT shareholders 52 minutes ago CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Solana (SOL) Gains 1.4%, Leading the Index Higher 1 hour ago KBW upgrades TeraWulf to outperform, sees AI pivot as catalyst for sharp growth 1 hour ago APT falls as token underperforms wider crypto markets 2 hours ago Korbit fined $1.9 million for anti money-laundering, customer verification breaches 3 hours ago Top Stories Bitcoin got stuck after slumping 30% from its peak. Here's why. 3 hours ago Korbit fined $1.9 million for anti money-laundering, customer verification breaches 3 hours ago XRP and solana volatility in 2025 was twice as bumpy as bitcoin's 4 hours ago Bitwise files for 11 'strategy' ETFs, tracking tokens including AAVE, ZEC, TAO 4 hours ago Winklevoss-backed Cypherpunk buys $28 million of zcash, now owns 1.7% of supply 5 hours ago South Korean retail keeps buying ether hoarder BitMine despite 80% drop: Report 8 hours ago