Privacy-focused tokens are suddenly outpacing the entire crypto market, with Firo, Velo, and Horizen delivering some of the strongest 24-hour performances across all digital assets. The surge comes at a time of rising U.S. regulatory pressure, renewed interest in anonymous transactions, and major technical upgrades that are pushing these networks into the spotlight.
Firo Skyrockets Ahead of Hard Fork Upgrade
Firo is the clear standout, jumping more than 26% in 24 hours and delivering an explosive 111% rally over the past week. Momentum is being driven by excitement around its November 19 hard fork, which will introduce Spark Name transfers and new GPU mining optimizations.
Trading volume has surged 251%, pushing Firo to a four-year high supported by sustained Lelantus protocol adoption and a bullish golden cross on the weekly chart.
With a fixed supply of just 21.4 million tokens and a low FDV of $48 million, Firo reacts sharply to demand spikes, fueling its rapid ascent. The key focus now is whether shielded transactions can remain above 25% following the upgrade, which could determine whether this rally has room to run.
Velo Rebounds as Southeast Asia’s DeFi Remittance Market Expands
Velo increased more than 11% in the last 24 hours, supported by strong technical indicators including a bullish MACD/RSI alignment and an 82% jump in trading volume to $17.4 million.
Its growing utility in Southeast Asian cross-border payments continues to attract speculation, reinforced by partnerships with Paxos and emerging remittance-based DeFi platforms.
Despite this upside, Velo’s broader 30-day performance remains negative, reflecting profit-taking after its June 2025 Binance Alpha listing. The next critical target is the $0.007 resistance level; failure to break cleanly above may result in a retest of $0.005 support.
Horizen Surges as Migration to Base L2 Unlocks New Utility
Horizen posted an 8% daily gain and more than 35% growth this month after successfully migrating its ecosystem to Coinbase’s Base Layer-2 as an ERC-20 asset.
The move has doubled daily active addresses and expanded ZEN’s accessibility via Aerodrome and Uniswap liquidity pools, giving the project a stronger DeFi presence.
With privacy-focused competitors like Monero facing regulatory pressure, Horizen is positioning itself as a compliant alternative. The next major milestone is the launch of its L3 appchain ecosystem, which analysts say will determine whether developer traction continues to accelerate.