AI, Privacy Coins Lead Altcoin Rally as Bitcoin Tops $75K
AI and privacy tokens have emerged as leaders after Bitcoin’s $75K retest, with experts citing infrastructure demand over speculative memes.
By Akash GirimathEdited by Stephen GravesMar 17, 2026Mar 17, 20263 min read
In brief
- Zcash and Midnight are among the altcoins notching notable gains over the past day as Bitcoin topped $75,000 Tuesday morning.
- While some experts suggest a shift in investor behavior, others remain cautious.
- Lack of support from spot buying could undo the recent gains, Decrypt was told.
Altcoins in the artificial intelligence and privacy sectors recorded significant gains following Bitcoin's extended recovery rally on Monday, triggering a broader risk-on rotation across crypto markets.
Zcash surged 17.9% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, while Midnight and Monero, posted gains of 4.1% and 3.3% on the day respectively. Meanwhile, AI coins including Virtuals Protocol and Near Protocol both ticked up by 3.8% over the past 24 hours.
The rally follows Bitcoin's climb past $75,000 Tuesday morning—its highest level in weeks—before the leading crypto pulled back to around $74,000, up 0.5% on the day.
Utility over speculation
The rotation into AI and privacy tokens signals that capital is flowing into narratives with perceived utility rather than speculative memes, experts told Decrypt.
"We're past the phase where crypto rallies were purely speculative momentum trades," Michael Heinrich, CEO of decentralized AI protocol OG Labs, told Decrypt. He attributed the recent shift to macro liquidity returning and a genuine narrative change.
"What's driving this cycle is real infrastructure demand,” he said. “AI agents need settlement layers, decentralized compute needs coordination, and on-chain privacy is no longer a nice-to-have, it's a prerequisite."
Resumed institutional Bitcoin ETF inflows, macro relief from stabilizing geopolitics, and heavy short squeezes in derivatives all contributed to Bitcoin's push above $75,000, Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue, told Decrypt. "Altcoins are catching fire as capital rotates," he said, noting that Bitcoin's dominance dipping below 59% signals a risk-on shift.
AI tokens have dominated the leaderboard, Adziima added, with Bittensor up 37% over the past week, and Render and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance gaining 25% and 53% respectively. The Bitrue analyst pointed to fresh agentic AI hype, Nvidia's agent platform teases, viral projects like OpenClaw, and Bittensor's Covenant-72B model launch as catalysts pulling in real capital.
Privacy plays like Monero and Zcash are riding along, he said, because AI workloads demand confidential data handling. "Privacy-preserving ML and compute create a killer synergy," Adziima explained. "AI infra plus privacy tools feel like real utility in a regulatory-tightening world, so capital rotates here over pure memes."
AI continues to hold high mindshare as a cornerstone of investor interest this cycle. Privacy, Pranav Agarwal, portfolio advisor at Ajna Capital, told Decrypt. That is attracting users and investors who believe in the core ethos of decentralization.
Looking ahead, experts remained constructive on the short-to-medium term, expecting upside bias. That move or outcome is heavily reliant on the upcoming macro signals, as Decrypt previously reported.
The recent Bitcoin rally has occurred amid declining spot volume, Jonatan Randin, senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, told Decrypt. He warned that despite bullish daily closes, the buying pressure within each session looks less sustained than during the March 4 breakout attempt.
Despite the altcoin rally, users on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, remain skeptical, assigning just an 8% chance of an “alt season” taking place before April 2026.
