What To Know:
- Legacy altcoins such as Zcash, ICP, Dash, Monero, Filecoin, and Uniswap outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum in a sluggish month, reflecting a rotation toward privacy, AI, and storage narratives.
- Zcash and ICP led gains with over 100% growth in 30 days, while Uniswap surged 20.5% in one day on governance reform optimism.
- Analysts see the trend as a structural shift driven by network upgrades, AI integrations, and renewed developer activity rather than a broad market rebound.
Amid the latest crypto slump, legacy altcoins like Zcash, ICP, Dash, Monero, Filecoin, Uniswap, have taken center stage. This counter trend shows a structural rotation owing to fresh narratives around privacy, AI, and on-chain storage. Bitcoin and Ethereum slowed down over the past month, but several altcoin projects saw substantial gains. This trend suggests that investors are using capital toward specific use cases.
Zcash, ICP, Dash, Uniswap, Filecoin, Monero Defined Altcoin Uptober
Zcash and Internet Computer led the pack, each more than doubling in value over the past 30 days. Zcash traded at $485.06 after climbing 82 percent in the month. Internet Computer, or ICP, rose 97.1 percent and was priced at $6.36 on the same day. Other legacy names made notable moves. Dash gained 16.5 percent to trade at $66.93. Monero rose 20.6 percent to $375.67. Filecoin climbed 53 percent and was at $2.38. Uniswap increased 41.8 percent to $8.62, with a one day spike of 20.5 percent tied to renewed attention around a governance proposal that could change Uniswap’s token economics and fee model.
Market watchers say these rallies are not random. They point to technical upgrades, renewed developer activity, and shifting investor focus as reasons these projects have reemerged. Zcash, for e.g., benefited from a privacy coin narrative and a recent halving event. Institutional moves by firms such as Grayscale and renewed engagement from the Electric Coin Company helped improve its performance.
Monero’s gains reflect recent network upgrades and a renewed emphasis on privacy features. Dash has been regaining confidence through steady ecosystem work, from payments integrations to DEX support and platform enhancements. These practical use cases helped the project win back investor attention.
ICP’s surge is linked to DFINITY’s push into AI and on-chain applications. The DeAI platform Caffeine and no-code tools for building Web3 applications pushed ICP into the spotlight among developers seeking to combine artificial intelligence with blockchain primitives. Filecoin’s narrative shifted toward on-chain cloud services. Advances in cross-chain interoperability and gas optimizations fueled renewed activity and investment. Arweave attracted flows as AI-driven demand for long-term data storage grew.
Layer two and DeFi adjacent projects are also seeing renewed inflows. ZKsync jumped 40.8 percent in the month to $0.05393. Starknet gained 40.1 percent and traded at $0.1581. Investors appear to be responding to progress on zero-knowledge proof technologies and substantive upgrade roadmaps.
Analysts who study market cycles say the current moves reflect a structural reweighting rather than a broad market recovery. Jordi Alexander, CEO at Selini Capital, said the market needs to show convincing price bottoms before mounting a sustained rally. He described the market as still recovering from the liquidation shock in October.
Matthew Kimmell, a digital asset analyst at CoinShares, described the correction as puzzling. He pointed to movement of previously dormant Bitcoin wallets as a source of continued selling pressure. Those coins moving back into circulation, he said, likely represent profit taking by investors who had been on the sidelines.
Despite the broader weakness in major tokens, the short-term rotation into niche sectors reveals where capital is hunting for differentiated value. Privacy, AI integration, storage, and protocol-level value capture have become watchwords among traders and allocators. That thematic focus shaped flows over the past month and underpinned the gains in older projects.
The rebound in these legacy projects also reflects a practical shift in market attention. Rather than chasing brand new narratives, some allocators are revisiting protocols with working products, live networks, and upgrade paths. Developer activity, real-world integrations, and measurable on-chain progress surfaced as the main criteria that separated winners from laggards.
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