Privacy-focused altcoins are the new focus of the cryptocurrency market. After the explosive rise of Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR) has emerged as the next rising star, attracting capital from investors who missed out on previous opportunities.
What does DCR’s surge mean for the project and broader market sentiment? This analysis breaks it down.
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Decred (DCR) breaks out of 3-year accumulation zone
Launched in 2016, Decred is a blockchain that combines both Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms with built-in privacy features. For over 1,200 days, DCR’s price has been dormant within a narrow cumulative range.
Everything changed in the first week of November. DCR has surged more than 170% to above $49, officially exiting the secular consolidation zone. This breakout signals the possibility of new highs, similar to those recently achieved by ZEC and DASH.
The appeal of DCR is not limited to technical charts. On-chain data reveals consistent accumulation trends. Since the beginning of 2025, Binance’s DCR balance (wallet address DsS…gG8) has been steadily decreasing. This reflects a continued accumulation strategy by long-term holders taking advantage of the lower trading range.
According to Bison Explorer, Binance’s DCR balance has decreased from more than 600,000 tokens at the beginning of this year to less than 300,000 tokens by October. This pattern is a classic sign of “smart money” preparing for the next bullish cycle.
Additionally, over 10 million DCRs are currently staked out of a total supply of 21 million, representing over 60% of all tokens. This reduces circulating supply and creates scarcity that can further increase prices as market attention increases.
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Another notable factor was Decred Treasury, which reached an all-time high of over 867,000 DCR. Treasury plays a key role in Decred’s self-funding model as it receives 10% of each block reward.
The community manages this treasury through a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Token holders can propose and vote on spending initiatives such as privacy technology development, marketing, and research.
“Decred proved that decentralized governance and privacy actually works. Stakeholders voted on everything from consensus changes to financial spending. True on-chain governance without a central authority,” the project states.
With the current enthusiasm and strong on-chain fundamentals, several analysts believe that DCR could reach $100 soon.
Privacy coin trend spreads to lower cap altcoins in November
The flow of funding within privacy-focused projects appears to be expanding from ZEC to DASH and now DCR. Investors believe that the true value of real cryptocurrencies is finally being appreciated.
These “classic” coins share several key characteristics, including a multi-year accumulation phase, independence from ETF speculation (no institutional inflows or sudden withdrawals), and limited exposure to the perpetual futures market. This makes them pure story trading.
Additionally, these coins are almost completely in circulation, which means they have lower inflation as opposed to new VC-backed tokens.
However, the recent rotation of capital into small-cap privacy coins shows short-term speculative thinking. Late investors run the risk of buying at a high price just as early investors begin to lock in profits.
