Looking Ahead to 2026: 4 Predictions for the Future of Privacy

The year 2025 marked significant milestones for on-chain privacy, with Zcash, a pioneering privacy coin, experiencing a substantial surge of over 600%. Major initiatives by Ethereum and Solana to integrate privacy into their networks also gained momentum. Startups focusing on zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technologies continued to attract attention. Influencers, including Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Solana infrastructure firm Helius, highlighted the importance of privacy, dubbing it 'Privacy Szn.' Many experts emphasized that privacy is crucial for institutional adoption, as companies typically prefer not to conduct business on public blockchains with fully transparent ledgers. To gauge what's in store for 2026, we sought predictions from five leading figures in the privacy space. The consensus is that privacy will become more pragmatic, with a shift towards finding a balance between privacy and transparency. Predictions include the emergence of private stablecoins as a core component of global payment infrastructure on-chain, the industrialization of privacy solutions, and the normalization of 'threat-resistance' as a standard for on-chain privacy.