Railgun activity remained high in February, despite the overall market decline. The mixer remains one of the most important products in the Ethereum ecosystem that may grow in the coming years as privacy remains a concern.
Railgun keeps peak value locked and shows robust activity as one of the most used mixers. The rise of Railgun offers an alternative to Tornado Cash for regular operations and has been adopted by DeFi users to disguise positions.
The total value captured on Railgun has expanded to over $113 million, with the majority of the value held on the Ethereum network. Polygon, Arbitrum and BNB Chain make up the small remainder. As a cryptopolite reportedEthereum is trying to upgrade its ecosystem, looking for AI help and viable use cases.
Railgun expanded its value captured in February and continued to show robust transaction activity used in DeFi. | Source: Dune Analytics
Railgun earned $269,000 in fees in February, slightly lower than in March. However, the size of transfers is also increasing, showing that larger DeFi customers trust the protocol.
Vitalik Buterin has used Railgun on several occasions, although some of his latest transfers have not been anonymized. Railgun is also expanding through dedicated wallets and a privacy toolkit, which can be integrated into DeFi apps.
Railgun grew as crypto mixing returned
Railgun claims to offer privacy to legal users. However, threat actors have also adapted and expanded their use of mixers. According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, mix is back after the end of sanctions against Tornado Cash.
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According to the researchers, sanctions have reshaped the mixing ecosystem. While Tornado Cash was the leader in the 2020-2022 period, the sanctions led to a diversified mixer market.
Other protocols had the advantage of not affecting funds, as exchanges may still be reluctant to accept funds linked to Tornado Cash. Railgun emerged as the leading protocol, with a 13% share in 2022 and over 71% in 2025.
The main funds moving through Railgun are WETH, USDT, USDC and DAI, demonstrating the influence of DeFi as the main driver.
Railgun scans the money upon entry against a database of infected wallets. However, this approach has failed to make money from recent exploits, as hackers are now making their move much more quickly.
Other pools check the origin of the money when withdrawing assets. For now, Railgun has managed to see adoption, allowing counterparties to move funds to exchanges without disclosing previous transaction data.
RAIL slides despite using Railgun
RAIL tokens fell to $1.02, clearing more than 46% in the past month. RAIL unravels an earlier rally that boosted privacy tokens.
Despite the fame and promotion of the project, RAIL lacks listings on major stock exchanges. Since the token relies on DeFi liquidity, its price directly reflects market sentiment. RAIL has also proven immune to concentrated pumps from centralized power stations.
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RAIL’s mindshare has also recently fallen 46% as the token shows no immediate signs of recovery.
For now, RAIL is under pressure in a similar way to other coins and tokens. RAIL has historically outperformed, with significant short-term gains of up to 40%, but is still under pressure from long-term altcoin weakness.