[joepa]

Was used by ShadowBrokers in the days.
Then ~$0.
Now crypto booms but still low. Why?

[BlackBeer]

I don't know exact, but the governments have blocked privacy coins on and off ramps.
Try buying Monero, it's a pain in the ass to obtain it.

[joepa]

So are those coins too good?

[pepqq]

So are those coins too good?

There are still ways to swap BTC for privacy coins like XMR or ZCASH, but the government has made it a bit more difficult through regulation. This is an attempt to crack down on privacy coins since they are "too good" like you said.

In this case, "too good" simply means that they are completely untraceable if the user takes proper precautions. If I have 100k in BTC and swap it for 100k in XMR, hold it for a while, then gradually swap smaller amounts (1k or 2k here and there) for USDC, there is no way to see what that XMR wallet contained or trace it back to the user in any way. Then the user can sell their small amounts of USDC through a legit exchange on their real IP without causing suspicion.

Assuming the user is swapping to / from XMR on a separate IP with good OPSEC, there is no way to link that 100k to a particular wallet / individual.

Anyways, I believe ZCASH has similar privacy features, though they may be opt-in.