ZEC's recent performance has indeed attracted a lot of attention, and the battle between bulls and bears is becoming increasingly evident.

The first time I heard about ZEC, a major industry influencer claimed it could rise to 10,000 USD per coin. At that time, I joined the watchlist with a try-and-see attitude, and from the moment I started paying attention, ZEC began a steady upward trend. I initially expected it to head straight to 1,000 USD, but after peaking at 750 USD, it fell back to 350 USD. During that period, I kept regretting missing the 600 USD opportunity.

Unexpectedly, it rebounded to 500 USD. This thing is known for high volatility—both bulls and bears can get wiped out.

When ZEC approached around 470 USD, I considered going long, but after checking on-chain data, I dismissed the idea. At that time, the situation was: the bulls kept adding positions at 460, while the bears were aggressively building positions at the same level, with a cost basis as low as 410 USD. This deadlock is typical of big players testing each other. Following the principle of "don't enter until the situation is clear," I chose to wait and see. As expected, ZEC soon fell below 410 USD. The on-chain battle between bulls and bears is still ongoing, with both sides increasing their positions in confrontation.

Honestly, as a retail investor, I can't really get in at this stage. Instead of blindly messing around, it's better to change my approach.

I shifted my focus to DASH. Both are privacy-related concepts, but their strategies are completely different—DASH adopts an optional privacy + payment channel approach, with the core logic of "pay first, then privacy." If ZEC is the "digital silver," DASH is more about "digital payments."

ZEC is positioned as a privacy version of BTC, with theoretically huge potential. But DASH's positioning is more practical. In the payment field, XRP has long dominated the Top 3 until BNB rose and overtook it. Interestingly, CZ has explicitly stated that the future of cryptocurrencies must include payments. Since payments are a necessity, and XRP remains strong, privacy coins like DASH that focus on payments still have a sustained market space.

So why not choose XMR? It’s the absolute privacy solution among privacy coins, sounding very attractive, but it also has a fatal flaw—because of its high privacy level, regulators simply can't overlook it, leading to an outright exclusion. In comparison, ZEC’s "privacy silver" concept naturally carries hype, which explains its large fluctuations.

DASH is different. Its "digital payment" positioning is down-to-earth, and the price is still reasonable, making it a more stable holding.

If ZEC really can rise to 10,000 USD, then it’s entirely possible for DASH, with its privacy concept, to break through to 200 USD.