2026 Onchain Privacy Outlook: From “Privacy Szn” to Practical Adoption

Privacy emerged as one of the defining narratives of crypto in 2025, and its momentum is set to accelerate further in 2026. Last year, Zcash surged more than 600%, becoming one of the strongest-performing digital assets and reigniting interest in privacy coins. At the same time, major ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana unveiled initiatives aimed at bringing native privacy features to their networks. Startups building privacy-preserving infrastructure using zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) also gained significant traction, signaling that onchain privacy is moving from theory to practice.

Influential voices across the industry echoed this shift. Solana infrastructure leader Mert Mumtaz famously called it “Privacy Szn,” while many institutional players emphasized that privacy is a prerequisite for broader enterprise adoption. Companies are reluctant to transact on public blockchains where sensitive financial data, business relationships, and treasury movements are fully transparent.

Looking ahead to 2026, leaders from across the privacy space predict a more nuanced and pragmatic era for onchain privacy. Rather than viewing privacy as an all-or-nothing feature, the industry is moving toward flexible models that balance confidentiality with security and compliance. Conditional or selective privacy is expected to become more common, allowing low-risk transactions to remain fully private while higher-risk activity includes safeguards that deter abuse and criminal exploitation. This approach mirrors how cash functions in the real world and addresses long-standing regulatory concerns.

Another major trend will be the rise of private stablecoins. These assets are expected to become a foundational layer of global onchain payments, offering configurable privacy features such as selective disclosure, transaction amount obfuscation, and, in some cases, sender-receiver anonymity. Crucially, these systems are being designed with compliance in mind, redefining what regulated, compliant payments look like onchain.

Finally, privacy technology itself will become increasingly industrialized. Projects that spent years in research and testnet phases are moving into production, even as challenges around wallet support, usability, and regulatory clarity remain. By 2026, “threat-resistant” privacy—designed to protect honest users while limiting misuse—is likely to become the default expectation, marking a decisive step toward mainstream onchain adoption.