Zcash (ZEC) is 3.8× the size of Stellar (XLM) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, ZEC is ahead by 222.6 percentage points (ZEC +181.0% against XLM -41.7%). Their daily returns move barely together (correlation 0.30 across 399 shared trading days). ZEC has been the more volatile of the two, at 149% annualised against XLM's 78%.
ZECXLM
0.30over 399 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 | ZEC | XLM |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -71.8% | -64.9% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 1.06 | -0.02 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +188.2% | +63.3% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -59.2% | -39.7% |
Relative strength over 90 days: ZEC outperformed XLM by 141.9% — measured on the ZEC/XLM ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.