Privacy Coins: What They Are, Why They Matter, and What You Need to Know

When you send privacy coins, cryptocurrencies designed to hide sender, receiver, and transaction amount. Also known as anonymous cryptocurrencies, they exist to protect your financial privacy—something regular Bitcoin transactions don’t offer. Unlike public blockchains where anyone can trace your wallet history, privacy coins use advanced math to scramble transaction details so only the people involved can see what happened.

Not all privacy coins are the same. Monero, a top privacy coin using ring signatures and stealth addresses to obfuscate every transaction is still active, widely used, and respected by privacy advocates. Zcash, another major privacy coin that lets users choose between transparent and shielded transactions offers flexibility but has faced scrutiny over its centralized founding team. Then there are coins that promised privacy but vanished—like projects tied to shady airdrops or fake teams that disappeared after collecting funds.

Regulators hate privacy coins. The U.S. Treasury, EU authorities, and even Brazil’s central bank have flagged them as high-risk tools for money laundering. That’s why exchanges like Coinbase block them in many countries. Some exchanges, like Altsbit and Blockfinex, got hacked or shut down after handling privacy coins—partly because they attracted users who wanted to move funds without oversight. And while privacy isn’t illegal, using these coins to hide stolen funds—like the $2.1 billion North Korean crypto thefts—makes everyone in the space look suspicious.

You’ll find posts here about real privacy coins, scams disguised as privacy tools, and exchanges that tried to support them—and failed. Some projects claimed to offer anonymity but had no tech to back it up. Others, like the ones tied to fake airdrops or ghost teams, were never meant to last. The truth? Most privacy coins today are either still fighting for survival or already dead. If you’re looking to protect your financial data, you need to know which ones still work, which ones are banned, and which ones are just noise.

Below, you’ll see what happened to the coins that promised secrecy—and why so many of them vanished. Some were scams. Others were outmaneuvered by regulation. A few still hold value, if you know where to look.