Does this mean the end of all privacy for crypto?
I don't think so but it's interesting to see some of the response of these coins marketed as privacy coins.
My takeaways from the posted article:
In August, Dash Core Group CEO Ryan Taylor published a blog post in which he appeared to distance the project from its privacy features. The post stated that the required processes and compliance tools for Dash are identical to those required to support Bitcoin. By this reasoning, since PrivateSend uses the same mixing techniques which are available for Bitcoin, then Dash is no more a privacy coin than BTC is.
Zcash appears to be taking a similar approach. Last week, Electric Coin Company, which operates Zcash, published a blog post of its own.
Jack Gavigan, who heads up the companys Regulatory Affairs division, explains that Zcash is also no different than other cryptocurrencies. In fact, somewhat ironically, its more compliant with the FATF transparency requirements than other coins which dont make claims to privacy.
The backpedalling may have contributed also to the drop in prices. Those who got sold of the privacy features are selling now that the supposedly privacy coins were no longer private all of a sudden.