Despite the overall weakness of most altcoins in 2025, several projects notably stood out due to their dynamics and significant events. This article examines why XRP, Zcash, and Algorand showed growth, the specific facts behind it, and what this means for miners.
Altcoin Market Overview in 2025
The year was selective: the market favored assets with clear regulatory status or real use cases rather than speculative projects. This meant that for many tokens, transparency and compliance requirements became more important than short-term price spikes.
XRP: Growth Amid Regulatory Clarity
XRP strengthened noticeably over the summer — the token rose more than 35% in July, reaching $3.60 by the end of the month. One of the key drivers was the easing of tensions between Ripple and regulators: the company announced the conclusion of a prolonged dispute with the SEC on August 8, 2025, reducing legal risk for the asset.
An additional boost came from institutional products: the launch of the first XRP-ETFs led to significant inflows — $756 million in net deposits during the first 11 trading days. These events together increased interest from major investors and somewhat changed the perception of XRP as an asset with more predictable regulatory frameworks. XRP — 2026 Forecast discusses the impact of such events on the asset's future positioning.
Zcash: Revival of Interest in Privacy
Zcash showed one of the most remarkable dynamics of the year, experiencing more than a 12-fold increase and reaching $744 on November 7. The strong rally was accompanied by growing interest in private transactions amid increased oversight and heightened attention to privacy in the financial sector.
Besides demand for privacy, the emission mechanism influenced the price: the Zcash halving on November 23, 2024, reduced the block reward from 3.125 ZEC to 1.5625 ZEC, cutting the daily influx of new coins. For users and market participants, this meant a shift in the supply-demand balance, which was a key factor in price dynamics.
Algorand: Growth Through Tokenization
Algorand attracted attention not so much through market spikes but by implementing real use cases. On January 21, 2025, the project announced a partnership with Enel Group to issue tokenized energy products, providing examples of blockchain application in the offline economy.
Technical steps were also notable: in March, Algorand released AlgoKit 3.0 for developers and announced plans to launch AlgoKit 4.0 in early 2026, signaling ongoing infrastructure development. These events help position the project as a platform for tokenizing real assets rather than just a speculative tool. For a broader altcoin overview, see Altcoins 2025, which provides examples of private and real tokens.
Why This Matters
If you mine, the key takeaway is this: not all price increases directly translate to mining profitability, but project events can affect demand and volatility. Specifically, Zcash is a PoW asset with halving, and emission changes impact miner rewards and potential price, whereas XRP and Algorand are linked to regulatory and institutional activity but do not depend directly on mining processes.
For miners with 1–1000 devices, this means monitoring not only prices but also structural changes: government decisions, institutional products, and significant partnerships can shift investor preferences and exchange liquidity, thereby affecting demand for the coin you mine.
What to Do?
- Check profitability: regularly calculate the profitability for coins your equipment can mine, considering fees and electricity costs.
- Follow project events: pay attention to halvings, emission changes, and major partnerships as they influence supply and demand.
- Diversify risks: with high volatility, spread mining efforts and keep liquidity reserves to cover downtime or price drops.
- Update software and settings: timely update firmware and mining software to reduce downtime and leverage performance improvements.
- Evaluate staking or tokenization markets: if your equipment isn’t efficient for mining a particular coin, consider alternative ecosystem participation methods (e.g., staking or involvement in tokenized projects).
Conclusions and Summary
The year 2025 showed that growth can come to projects with clear regulatory foundations, demand for privacy, or real tokenization use cases. XRP, Zcash, and Algorand exemplify different paths to renewed investor interest: legal clarity, privacy demand, and integration with the real economy.
For miners, this means staying aware of structural changes in chosen projects and adapting operational decisions based on emission, institutional demand, and practical network applicability.