Run the one-year column on the biggest names in crypto and it reads like a casualty list. Bitcoin is down 29% — and that's the best result of any giant. Ethereum: −42%. Solana: −49%. XRP: −50%. Dogecoin: −60%. Cardano: −69%. Hedera: −62%. Polkadot: −67%. In a year like that, green ink is rare enough to count on one hand and a bit: exactly seven major cryptocurrencies are up over the last twelve months. This is the board — who's green, by how much, and the headline reason why. Whether that green is actually strong is a separate question, and it's the next post. Prices checked October 28, 2026.
The benchmark: Bitcoin weekly closes, one year — about $81,400, down 29%. Every green name below beat this line. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
1. Zcash (ZEC) — up 312%
Coin — native to its own chain, and it turned ten years old today. Zcash is the privacy coin Wall Street finally built a door for: Grayscale's ZCSH became the first US Zcash ETF in August and now holds about 577,000 ZEC (3.4% of supply, roughly $708M in assets). Behind the ETF, two corporate camps are racing to accumulate the coin itself — Winklevoss-backed Cypherpunk runs about 20% of the network's hashrate and holds ~323,000 ZEC targeting 5% of supply, while DCG's Fortitude Mining says it reaches ~20% of hashrate too. Corporate treasuries together hold about 5.4% of all ZEC. The one soft patch on the board: ZEC is down 14% over the last 30 days, and the ETF has bled from its September peak near $950M. Price: $1,308. Market cap: $22.2B. Still 59% below its all-time high.
ZEC weekly closes, one year: $1,308, up 312% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
2. Quant (QNT) — up 146%
Token — an ERC-20 on Ethereum. Quant sells Overledger, interoperability software that connects banks and big companies to multiple blockchains through one system. The token has a working job in that business: licenses are priced in dollars but settled in QNT, with tokens locked for the license term, so real customers create real demand for the coin. The supply helps too — a hard cap around 14.6M, roughly 99% already circulating, no unlock cliff hanging over the chart. It's the second-biggest gainer on the board, though it's cooled 19% in the last 30 days. Price: $201. Market cap: $2.9B. Down 53% from its all-time high.
QNT weekly closes, one year: $201, up 146% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
3. NEAR Protocol (NEAR) — up 106%
Coin — native to its own layer-1. NEAR spent the year repositioning: chain abstraction first, then a full pivot to AI — the pitch is that NEAR becomes the layer where AI agents hold money and transact. Its Intents product, which swaps assets across chains by stated outcome rather than by route, is where the genuine usage growth is, and the market has rewarded the story harder than almost anything else on this board. Notably, NEAR has held up best of the momentum names lately: down only about 4% in the last 30 days while most of the board cooled. Price: $4.76. Market cap: $6.2B. Still 77% below its all-time high — this is a recovery chart, not a victory lap.
NEAR weekly closes, one year: $4.76, up 106% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
4. Monero (XMR) — up 76%
Coin — native to its own chain. Monero is the privacy coin the regulated world tried to kill: delisted by Binance in 2024, with EU licensed custody banned from July 2027. The exile backfired as a market force — exchange supply shrank while the people who use private money kept using it, and anyone with a CPU can still mine it. Supply grows by a fixed tail emission (0.6 XMR per block, forever, at a rate that falls every year). And here's the line that stands out on this whole board: XMR is the only name that's also green over the last 30 days, up about 11% while every other winner cooled. Price: $602. Market cap: $11.3B. Only 25% below its all-time high — the closest of any classic name here.
XMR weekly closes, one year: $602, up 76% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
5. Hyperliquid (HYPE) — up 71%
Coin — native to Hyperliquid's own layer-1, built around its perpetuals exchange, the biggest on-chain perps venue there is. Hyperliquid's trading fees are enormous — about $898M over the last twelve months — and roughly 99% of them are routed to a fund that buys HYPE on the market and permanently removes it from supply. That mechanical bid, running every day regardless of sentiment, is a big part of why HYPE's chart looks like this — and why it sits only 17% below its all-time high, the closest to its peak of any name in this post. Down about 8% over the last 30 days, in line with the board cooling. Price: $81.59. Market cap: $19.5B.
HYPE weekly closes, one year: $81.59, up 71% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
6. Uniswap (UNI) — up 11%
Token — an ERC-20 on Ethereum. Uniswap is the biggest decentralized exchange in crypto, and for years its token held no claim on the exchange's fees at all. That changed on December 28, 2025, when the UNIfication proposal activated: a slice of trading fees now buys UNI and burns it, and the treasury burned a one-time 100M UNI on top. The repricing of that switch is most of this modest green year — UNI is up, but from a deep hole: it still sits 84% below its all-time high, the deepest hole on the board. Down about 19% over the last 30 days. Price: $7.26. Market cap: $4.5B.
UNI weekly closes, one year: $7.26, up 11% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
7. TRON (TRX) — up 10%
Coin — native to the TRON chain, the network much of the world actually uses to move dollars: about $92.5B of USDT circulates on TRON, more than on Ethereum, and the network settled roughly $2.21 trillion of stablecoin transfers in Q3 2026 alone. TRX's green is the quietest on the board and, by one measure, the sturdiest: at only 24% below its all-time high, it has the shallowest drawdown of any major cryptocurrency, full stop — Bitcoin included. Down just 2% over the last 30 days. Price: $0.3296. Market cap: $31.3B — the biggest market cap on the green board.
TRX weekly closes, one year: $0.3296, up 10% on the year. Data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026.
The board, in one breath
ZEC +312% (ETF + treasury race) · QNT +146% (enterprise licensing) · NEAR +106% (the AI pivot) · XMR +76% (exile scarcity — and the only one still rising this month) · HYPE +71% (a fee-funded buyback machine) · UNI +11% (the fee switch finally on) · TRX +10% (the world's USDT rails).
Seven green names in a red year. But green is a direction, not a grade — some of this strength is funded by fees and buyers you can point to, and some of it is a story the market hasn't audited yet. The other half of the board — the big names that are red but fell the least — gets its own post.
Check it yourself: links and sources
Zcash (ZEC) — coin, native to Zcash. Official website · Grayscale (ZCSH ETF) · Corporate treasury tracker
Quant (QNT) — token on Ethereum, contract 0x4a220e6096b25eadb88358cb44068a3248254675. Official website · Etherscan (holders tab = rich list)
NEAR (NEAR) — coin, native to NEAR. Official website · NearBlocks explorer
Monero (XMR) — coin, native to Monero; its privacy design means no public rich list exists. Official website
Hyperliquid (HYPE) — coin, native to the Hyperliquid L1. Official website · DefiLlama fees
Uniswap (UNI) — token on Ethereum, contract 0x1f9840a85d5aF5bf1D1762F925BDADdC4201F984. Official website · Etherscan (holders tab = rich list)
TRON (TRX) — coin, native to TRON. Official website · Tronscan explorer · DefiLlama chain and stablecoin data
Market data: CoinGecko, checked October 28, 2026. Fees and stablecoin figures: DefiLlama. ZCSH assets: Grayscale listing data via TokenPost; hashrate race: Bloomberg, October 23, 2026. Logos shown for editorial identification only. Not financial advice.
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