Zcash exchange: swap ZEC anonymously

These are reference figures from our own rate feed, not quotes — every swap is re-priced across our liquidity partners at the moment you confirm, and the best receive amount wins. How that comparison works is on the methodology page.

Block time

~1 min

Network

Zcash

Zcash supports two kinds of address. Transparent ones (starting with `t`) behave exactly like Bitcoin addresses and are fully public. Shielded ones (starting with `z`) use zero-knowledge proofs to hide sender, receiver and amount.

That choice is the whole story of Zcash privacy. Shielding works, cryptographically — but it protects you only if you use it, and only in proportion to how many others do. A shielded transaction in a mostly transparent network stands out precisely because it is unusual.

Most exchanges, ours included, work with transparent addresses. If privacy is the goal for a ZEC balance, moving it into the shielded pool yourself after the swap is the step that provides it.

Zcash launched in 2016 from work led by Zooko Wilcox, a computer security specialist, at what became the Electric Coin Company (ECC); the Zcash Foundation, a separate non-profit, funds development alongside it. The proofs behind shielding are zk-SNARKs, which let the network verify a payment without revealing the sender, the receiver or the amount. The same public blockchain therefore carries both transparent and shielded value: transparent transactions expose their transaction details to anyone, while a wallet that can shield ZEC keeps that sensitive information secure. A Zcash exchange made here pays out to a transparent address, so shielding afterwards is the step that stays in your hands. An anonymous ZEC exchange hides who swapped, not what the chain shows: funds sent to a transparent address remain public.

• Before you send. Check which address type your wallet gave you. A payout sent to a transparent address is a public transaction, whatever the wallet is capable of.
• Set a refund address. Funds go back there automatically if a swap cannot complete — a deposit below the minimum, or one arriving after the quote window closed. Without one, a refund needs a message to support instead. See refund handling.
• Nothing is held for you. Deposits are forwarded, not stored, and the data kept is the amount and the two addresses — purged once the swap finalizes. The full picture is on the privacy page.

The usual way to buy Zcash is a centralized exchange: open an account, pass identity verification, link a bank account or a card, and pay in fiat currency. It works, and every step of it is recorded against your name — the purchase, the payment details and the address you withdraw to. If you already hold any other coin there is a shorter route: convert it into ZEC here. A Zcash swap needs no account and no verification, exchange processing is automatic once the deposit lands, and the ZEC goes straight to a wallet you control, so you keep full control of the keys from the first minute.

What this site does not do is take a card or a bank transfer. There is no fiat on-ramp, by design, because the on-ramp is exactly the step that requires identity. If you hold nothing yet, buy something liquid on an exchange you are prepared to be verified at, withdraw it, and swap from there. The swap is the step with no account in it — the withdrawal before it still sits on a public chain under your name, which is Bitcoin anonymous explains.

Minimum amount

The live minimum amount of ZEC for each pair is shown in the widget before you confirm. It moves with network conditions rather than being a fixed figure, and there is no maximum.

Network fee

The fee for delivering coins to your wallet address is already inside the receive amount. The one cost outside the quote is the transaction fee your own wallet pays to send the ZEC deposit.

Exchange rate

ZEC exchange rates are compared in real time across several partners when you enter the amount, and re-priced server-side the moment you confirm, so the rate you see is the rate the order is created with.

Processing time

A swap out of ZEC runs once your ZEC transaction to the deposit address has the network confirmations the partner requires, and Zcash transactions settle in blocks that come every ~1 min. How many it waits for depends on the amount and on network congestion, so the tracking page shows the live count.

• BTC → ZEC
• ZEC → XMR
• ZEC → BTC

Any pair is quotable, not just these — a wide range of digital assets is listed, and every supported coin can be swapped against every other, and the popular routes each have a page of their own.

• Dash
• Cardano
• Polkadot
• Avalanche
• Cosmos
• TRON