The privacy token market is flying. Even as parts of the broader market show signs of powerful weakness with Bitcoin and Ethereum slipping, the Monero price has been surging higher. The XMR price rally has delivered over 100% gains to anyone who held the privacy token throughout 2023 and much of 2024, when it was trading at around $140.
Zcash and Dash have also surged as the privacy token narrative has completely outperformed the broader market. Traders appear to be rotating capital into tokens that promise stronger anonymity and decentralization, themes that have reemerged as top priorities in the crypto space.
GhostwareOS ($GHOST) has quickly gained attention as a new Solana-based privacy project that shares Monero’s ethos of decentralization, anonymity, and anti-censorship.
GhostwareOS has cited the Freedom of the Press Foundation as a major influence on its mission to protect privacy and free expression in the digital world. The Foundation’s decades-long fight to defend encryption and anonymity for journalists inspired the Ghostware team to bring those same principles to blockchain technology.
As the privacy narrative strengthens, many traders are now asking the question: Is GHOST the next major privacy coin contender?
What you'll learn 👉
Monero Price Action: More Gains to Follow?
The XMR price action has been far more bullish than the broader market. This week, as Bitcoin dropped below $105,000, the Monero price continued to climb toward $350, pushing its market capitalization close to $6.5 billion. The privacy token has returned well over 100% in the past year, making it one of the strongest-performing large-cap altcoins in the market.
From a technical perspective, Monero hit a yearly high of around $417 back in May and has since been steadily recovering toward the $400 level. The current structure suggests consolidation before another potential push higher.
Most analysts expect XMR to reach $400 before the end of the year, but do not see it climbing to $500 anytime soon. As a result, potential returns appear limited compared to smaller-cap privacy projects such as GHOST, which still have significant room for growth.
XMR price action. Source: CoinMarketCap
GHOST: The Hottest New Privacy Coin
The privacy crypto market has become somewhat overvalued, according to many analysts. Zcash, Dash, and Monero have all seen massive surges in their valuations, which is great for long-term holders but leaves newcomers feeling a little late to the party. As a result, the Ghostware project has become a leading alternative option due to the fact that it only launched in late October and has a low market cap of around $10 million, providing a strong entry point for new traders.
GhostwareOS was built with a clear vision to restore privacy, decentralization, and censorship resistance to the blockchain world. The project integrates advanced features such as GhostOS and Tx ShadowNet, which work together to make transactions and user interactions completely anonymous within the Solana ecosystem.
The project’s growth has been rapid. The number of holders is climbing fast, and several large investors have begun accumulating GHOST during market pullbacks. On-chain data shows that multiple whale wallets, including some linked to the Binance exchange, have purchased significant portions of the available supply, signaling growing confidence in GhostwareOS as the next major privacy-focused crypto.
GHOST vs XMR Price Action
The XMR price action has been very bullish over the past few months. The project has lagged slightly behind the likes of Dash and Zcash, but has nonetheless performed extremely well compared to the non-privacy crypto market. The Monero price has climbed steadily toward the $350 mark, rewarding long-term holders and reaffirming its place as one of the leading privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
GHOST, on the other hand, has delivered far more explosive early-stage growth. Since launching with a market cap of around $1 million, the token surged to $26 million within days, giving early investors returns of roughly 26x before a healthy pullback occurred due to the broader market downturn. Despite this correction, GHOST has continued to hold up well, showing strong support and steady trading volume.
Traders see enormous upside in GHOST because of its small market capitalization compared to the legacy privacy coins. With Monero valued at around $6 billion and GHOST still hovering near $20 million, the difference in scale gives the Solana-based project far more room for exponential gains if the privacy narrative continues to expand.
As the privacy token market matures, GHOST appears better positioned to deliver the next wave of major returns, with many analysts expecting it to outperform XMR in the coming months.
