Zcash (ZEC) is 1.8× the size of Monero (XMR) by market capitalisation. Their daily returns move barely together (correlation 0.25 across 35 shared trading days). ZEC has been the more volatile of the two, at 149% annualised against XMR's 38%.
XMRZEC
0.25over 35 shared trading days
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.
| Metric | XMR | ZEC |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -7.3% | -71.8% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 0.28 | 1.15 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | — | +188.2% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | — | -59.2% |
Relative strength over 90 days: XMR outperformed ZEC by 34.4% — measured on the XMR/ZEC ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.