Zcash, Monero and Hyperliquid Shake Up the Crypto Top 10

The ranking of the top ten largest cryptos, excluding stablecoins, is evolving. Zcash, Monero and Hyperliquid are now entering the list, while Cardano and Chainlink are falling back. This reshuffle reflects a capital rotation towards more volatile assets, as several major cryptos go through a difficult period.

Three entries, two exits

This reshuffle has been built progressively. At the end of September, we already mentioned the $24.5 billion valuation gained by Zcash and Monero in five months. Since then, their progress has contributed to changing the market hierarchy.

According to CoinGecko data, Zcash shows a capitalization of $20.8 billion, ahead of Hyperliquid, at $19 billion, and Monero, at $10.1 billion. Conversely, Cardano now weighs only $9.3 billion and Chainlink $9.9 billion. The two cryptocurrencies now occupy the fifteenth and seventeenth places in the overall ranking, which includes stablecoins.

The performances over twelve months illustrate this contrast even better. Zcash gains about 418%, Hyperliquid 131%, and Monero 79%. Cardano and Chainlink follow the opposite trend, with respective losses of 61% and 25%.

Privacy-focused cryptos regain momentum

Zcash crossed back above the $1,000 threshold in September, a first since 2018, as we explained in this article: Zcash crosses back above $1,000 for the first time since 2018.

The price then reached $1,653 on September 27 before correcting by about 25%. Despite this pullback, Zcash shows an increase of more than 500% since its low point of March 8, at $197.

This surge, however, raises questions. In October, hackers turned to Zcash to cover their tracks after the Bitget hack. Such use could increase regulators’ distrust. 

Additionally, speculation remains high: on October 11, open positions on perpetual contracts reached $3.58 billion, or about 17% of Zcash’s capitalization.

Monero also benefits from this interest in privacy. Its annual rise of 79% allows it to slightly surpass Chainlink in capitalization, despite a less spectacular increase than Zcash.

Hyperliquid benefits from the market rotation

Hyperliquid follows another trajectory. The platform specializing in decentralized perpetual contracts has seen its token increase by 131% in one year, bringing its capitalization close to $19 billion. 

This performance confirms the arrival of new players among the largest cryptocurrencies, as also illustrated by NEAR’s entry into the top 20 with a valuation of $7.2 billion.

Meanwhile, several market heavyweights retreat. Over twelve months, bitcoin loses about 25%, ether 33%, BNB 34%, Solana 38%, and XRP nearly 42%. This weakness favors the reshuffle of the ranking, although it does not guarantee a lasting rotation towards riskier assets.

Finally, gaps remain tight between several cryptos. Monero, Cardano and Chainlink are within less than a billion dollars of capitalization from each other. A few sessions of increase or decrease could therefore be enough to again change the ranking.