The 2020 halving season has officially come to a close. As Zcash (ZEC) completed its first-ever block reward reduction on November 18, marking the final major halving event of the year, it’s time to assess how each of the top halving-related cryptocurrencies performed. While Bitcoin continues to dominate narratives around supply scarcity and price momentum, many altcoins tied to the “halving concept” failed to deliver.
This article reviews eight major halving coins—BTC, BCH, BSV, DASH, ETC, ZEC, ZEN (Horizen), and BCD (Bitcoin Diamond)—to evaluate their price movements before, during, and after their respective halvings. We’ll uncover which ones underperformed, analyze underlying fundamentals, and explore whether privacy-focused blockchains still hold relevance in today’s evolving crypto landscape.
How Did the Halving Coins Perform?
Most of these eight digital assets experienced their first halving in 2020 (except BTC), offering a unique opportunity to observe how reduced block rewards influence market behavior. Historically, halvings are expected to tighten supply and potentially drive prices upward due to scarcity—but reality doesn’t always follow theory.
👉 Discover how market cycles truly impact halving assets
Looking at monthly performance around the halving date, most coins posted positive gains. DASH led the pack with a 32% increase during its halving month, while others like BCH and ETC hovered around 15%. Notably, Zcash (ZEC) and Horizen (ZEN) barely moved—each gaining less than 5% despite favorable market conditions.
Year-to-date results tell a more nuanced story. ZEN has struggled to maintain 2019 levels, showing little reaction to its halving event. BCH saw strong momentum until its November hard fork triggered a sharp decline, capping annual growth at under 20%. In contrast, BTC and BCD surged with 150% and 118% gains respectively—proving that halving-driven bullishness remains most potent in Bitcoin and its closest derivatives.
Zcash: Halving Hype Faded Early
Zcash, often grouped with Monero (XMR) and Dash as one of the leading privacy coins, launched in 2016 using zk-SNARKs for shielded transactions. Its November 2020 halving reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 ZEC per block.
Despite being the last major halving event of the year, market enthusiasm was muted. According to on-chain data from QKL123, ZEC experienced consistent net outflows over the past month, with daily capital outflows exceeding tens of millions of RMB.
Price-wise, ZEC rose approximately 122% year-to-date—but nearly all of this gain occurred in January, when “halving概念股” (halving concept stocks) were trending. A secondary bump in April stemmed largely from post-COVID crash rebounds rather than fundamental strength. Over the last three months, ZEC has declined by 24%, and recent price action shows no breakout linked to the halving itself.
At time of writing, ZEC trades around $63.45, down 2.38% over 24 hours.
Supply Shock: Real but Not Enough?
The halving significantly reduced ZEC’s inflation rate—from 25% to 12%. Daily issuance dropped from ~7,000 ZEC to ~3,500, cutting annual supply by roughly 1.27 million tokens. At current prices, that equates to over $76 million less in miner sell pressure annually—a meaningful reduction.
However, supply contraction alone isn’t enough to drive price without corresponding demand growth. Miners now face lower revenues; if ZEC’s price doesn’t recover, less efficient rigs may shut down or switch to other Equihash-based coins like ZEN or BEAM.
Controversial Dev Fund: Innovation or Centralization?
A major point of contention surrounding Zcash is its developer funding model. Originally, 20% of block rewards went to the Electric Coin Company (ECC), Zcash’s core development team—a mechanism critics dubbed a “miner tax.”
That funding was supposed to expire in October 2020. Instead, the Zcash Foundation held a community vote in May 2020 to extend it through a new protocol upgrade called Canopy.
Under Canopy:
- 80% of block rewards go to miners
20% fund development:
- 8% to a community grant pool
- 7% to ECC
- 5% to the Zcash Foundation
But ECC already receives additional funds—$380,000 monthly since mid-2019—from the Foundation due to prior financial shortfalls. This dual funding structure raises concerns about centralization and long-term sustainability.
Critics argue that ECC hasn’t delivered transformative upgrades despite years of funding. Upgrades have focused on performance improvements—faster shielded transaction confirmations, lower memory usage, and BOLT (a Lightning-like off-chain solution)—but lack the ecosystem expansion seen on platforms like Ethereum.
In contrast, Dash pivoted toward becoming a digital cash system with instant payments and decentralized governance via masternodes—a strategy that has revitalized its use case beyond privacy.
Is the Privacy Coin Narrative Fading?
Two years ago, privacy coins ranked among the top 12–21 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Today, all three major privacy projects—Zcash, Monero, and Dash—have slipped in rankings by up to 10 positions.
Why? The broader blockchain narrative has shifted toward scalability (sharding, PoS), interoperability (cross-chain), and utility (DeFi, NFTs). Privacy is still valuable—but increasingly treated as a feature rather than a standalone product.
Newer blockchains can integrate privacy tools (like zk-Rollups or confidential transactions) without requiring dedicated privacy coins. As one industry analyst put it:
“For tokens aiming for mass adoption, pure privacy is no longer a compelling core value. The future lies in mainstream cryptos adopting privacy features.”
Even Zcash is adapting: Wrapped ZEC (wZEC), launched in October 2020 by Tokensoft and Anchorage, brings ZEC onto Ethereum as an ERC-20 token—but without preserving its privacy functionality.
👉 See how wrapped assets are reshaping cross-chain liquidity
Graystone Adds ZEC: A Vote of Confidence?
On November 8, Grayscale increased its ZEC Trust holdings by 3,534 tokens (+2%), bringing total holdings to 179,000 ZEC. While modest compared to GBTC inflows, this stands in contrast to BCH’s declining institutional interest.
“It’s not much,” says analyst Xiao K., “but among legacy coins, ZEC is holding up reasonably well.”
Still, he admits he hasn’t touched privacy coins in years. “The last time I got excited about them was during Grin’s launch—remember Mimblewimble? That might’ve been privacy’s last spring.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a cryptocurrency halving?
A: A halving is a pre-programmed event that reduces block rewards by 50%, decreasing new supply issuance. It typically occurs every few years and is designed to control inflation.
Q: Why didn’t all halving coins go up?
A: Market anticipation often prices in expected supply shocks early. Without strong demand drivers or ecosystem growth, post-halving rallies may fizzle out.
Q: Is Zcash still a good investment?
A: It depends on your thesis. If you believe in long-term demand for private transactions and trust ECC’s roadmap, it may hold value. But competition from privacy-enabled layer-2 solutions poses a real threat.
Q: Does lower inflation guarantee price increases?
A: Not necessarily. Reduced supply helps only if demand stays constant or grows. Without adoption or utility growth, prices may stagnate despite lower inflation.
Q: Are privacy coins obsolete?
A: Not entirely—but their role is changing. As privacy becomes a modular feature in larger ecosystems (e.g., Ethereum L2s), standalone privacy chains must innovate beyond anonymity to survive.
Q: What’s next for Zcash after Canopy?
A: Continued focus on performance and integration with DeFi via wrapped versions. However, success depends on increasing real-world usage and regaining miner and community trust.