Monero has officially surged to a new all-time high of $545, marking its strongest price level ever as traders shift away from Zcash. Data from Bitfinex shows the leading privacy coin surpassing its previous record of nearly $518, set in 2021, underscoring a sharp shift in capital and renewed interest in privacy-focused crypto assets.Privacy coins, such as Monero, are designed to keep transactions anonymous, allowing users to send and receive funds without revealing their identities. Many crypto observers see the recent rally as driven in part by this rotation from Zcash to Monero.Zcash has experienced a recent price decline. This occurred primarily because the group responsible for developing Zcash, known as the Electric Coin Company (ECC), had disagreements with other members of the community regarding how Zcash should be managed. Following that dispute, Zcash declined by approximately 25% over the course of just one week. As a result, many investors transferred their funds from Zcash to Monero.This moving of money from one coin to another is called capital rotation. Capital rotation can cause some coins to increase in price while others decrease. In this case, Monero’s price increased sharply as more people purchased it.Strong price movement for MoneroMonero has not only reached a new high, but it has also demonstrated strong growth across various time periods. Over the course of a day, Monero’s price climbed by more than 15%. Over the past week, its price increased by about 26.5%. Over the past year, Monero’s price has risen by approximately 168%. This means if someone bought Monero a year ago, the value of their investment would be much higher today.At the same time, Monero also strengthened important price levels. This means that after rising, the price remained at higher levels instead of falling back quickly. Price charts indicate that Monero’s price surpassed key points between $420 and $470, and these points are now serving as a floor.Because of this big rise, Monero is now getting closer to being one of the top ten cryptocurrencies in the world by market size. As of this weekend, Monero is ranked around 12th place, with a total value of all Monero coins estimated at around $9.9 billion. If its price continues to rise, Monero might soon move into the top ten.Currently, the two larger coins standing in Monero’s path are Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Cardano (ADA). These coins have larger market sizes than Monero, so the crypto will need to grow significantly before it can surpass them.Why are people interested in privacy coins?One of the reasons Monero is performing well is that more people are discussing privacy in digital currency. At the same time, some regulators are increasing surveillance and setting tougher laws for digital assets. This makes some investors uneasy, and they look for coins that help protect user privacy.Although Monero is performing well currently, not everyone agrees on what the future holds. As rules get tighter, privacy coins could become more popular and useful. Others believe that regulators may make it more difficult for privacy coins to be used. That could slow down their growth or make prices fall.So far, Monero looks like a quiet winner — a coin that didn’t get huge attention for a long time, but now is rising steadily. It is gaining more value and potentially drawing money that was previously invested in Zcash. This has helped it grow faster than some other major coins, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), over the last year.Only time will tell if Monero will remain popular and continue to rise. For now, many people are watching it closely because it shows one of the strongest moves among privacy coins and digital money in general. Join a premium crypto trading community free for 30 days - normally $100/mo.