Private payment rails are becoming a competitive necessity, and the privacy sector could expand 7x as stablecoin rails mature and institutions demand confidential execution by default. Privacy coins reached a $17.9b market cap; Zcash's shielded pool holds about 30% of supply, with rising shielded activity and a price above $500, and Aztec leads L2s in GitHub activity with live programmable privacy. Private payments should take a growing share of on-chain volume over the next 24-36 months. x.com
