Convert between ZEC and US dollars at the live rate.
$3,191.93
−84.56% from current
$16.08
+2964.68% from current
Independent editorial ranking. Score is 0–10 across six criteria: Security, Fees, UX, Features, Support, Reputation.
US and EU users who prioritise a spotless security record — no major hack since 2011 — and want a serious pro-grade trading terminal.
Institutions and funds requiring an SEC-registered venue with segregated qualified custody and audited on-chain reserves.
Active spot traders chasing the deepest global liquidity and the widest listing catalogue outside the US perimeter.
Traders who mix spot and on-chain — the Web3 wallet, DEX aggregator and Ethereum L2 X Layer sit inside the same account as CEX pairs.
Long-horizon EU holders who want the oldest continuously-operating exchange (2011) with conservative listings and full MiCA licensing.
Derivatives-first traders who want tighter perp funding and a maker-friendly fee schedule; accept offshore regulatory footprint.
Top coins in the same category, ordered by market cap.
Zcash (ZEC) is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched on October 28, 2016 by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn and the Electric Coin Company (ECC). It was the first major project to ship zk-SNARKs in production, a class of zero-knowledge proofs that lets the network confirm a transaction without exposing the sender, receiver, or amount. The protocol is a fork of the Bitcoin codebase, so it inherits Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap and four-year halving cadence.
The headline feature is choice. Zcash supports two address types: transparent (t-addresses) that look and behave like Bitcoin, and shielded (z-addresses) where on-chain data is encrypted. Users decide per transaction. ECC builds the reference wallet (Zashi), the Zcash Foundation maintains the spec and runs grants, and a developer fund built into the block reward pays for ongoing work.
ZEC trades on most major exchanges that still list privacy coins. The deepest pairs are ZEC/USDT and ZEC/BTC, with ZEC/USD available on a smaller set of regulated venues. Live data on this page refreshes every 60 seconds and uses a volume-weighted average across the most liquid markets.
What tends to push the price around:
The figure in the price card above is the live quote at page load. The discussion below uses that reference price.
A zero-knowledge proof lets one party convince another that a statement is true without revealing why. In Zcash, the statement is roughly "I own coins, the math adds up, and I have not double-spent." The proof goes on chain. The amount, sender, and recipient do not.
The protocol has gone through four proving systems. The original 2016 version used a SNARK construction that needed a one-time trusted setup ceremony, where a small group generated parameters and were trusted to destroy the leftover toxic waste. Sapling, activated in October 2018, made shielded transactions roughly 100x faster and small enough to run on a phone. Heartwood (July 2020) allowed mining rewards to flow directly to shielded addresses. The big shift came with NU5 in May 2022, which introduced the Orchard pool built on Halo 2.
Halo 2 is the part that matters technically. It removes the trusted setup entirely through recursive proof composition, meaning each proof can verify the previous one. No ceremony, no toxic waste, no trust assumption about who held the parameters in 2016. Older shielded pools (Sprout, Sapling) still exist; new shielded activity now lives in Orchard.
Zcash mirrors Bitcoin’s monetary policy. Maximum supply is capped at 21 million ZEC. The block reward halves about every four years. Block time is roughly 75 seconds, which is faster than Bitcoin’s 10 minutes but does not change the long-term issuance schedule.
The halvings to date:
The next halving lands around November 2028. About 16 to 17 million ZEC of the 21 million cap is already in circulation; the remainder will leak out over more than a century.
For the parallel mechanism on the larger asset, see Bitcoin. Forward price scenarios for Zcash itself live on our Zcash price forecast page.
A Zcash wallet can hold both kinds of address. A t-address starts with the letter "t" and behaves exactly like a Bitcoin address: amounts, sender, and receiver are visible on a block explorer. A z-address starts with "z" (or "u" for the newer unified addresses) and encrypts those fields. From the outside, a shielded transaction reveals only that some amount of ZEC moved.
Funds can shift between the two pools at any time. A shielded-to-transparent send (z-to-t) reveals the destination amount because that side is public. A fully shielded transaction (z-to-z) reveals nothing on chain. Most exchanges only support t-addresses, which is why the bulk of trading volume runs through transparent flows even on a coin built for privacy.
Shielded share has trended up over time. The Sapling upgrade made z-to-z cheap enough to be the default in modern wallets. Orchard pushed adoption further by removing the trusted setup. Even so, day-to-day transparent volume still dominates because exchanges remain the largest single source of activity.
Buying ZEC is straightforward where it is still listed. The trickier part is custody and address choice, since storing in a shielded address is not the same as storing in an exchange account. A typical flow:
Always run a small test withdrawal first when sending to a new address, especially when moving between transparent and shielded pools.
Zcash and Monero are the two best-known privacy coins, but they handle privacy differently. The trade-offs decide which one fits a given use case.
If on-chain privacy is the only goal and audit access does not matter, Monero is more private by default. If selective disclosure matters (compliance, tax, accounting), Zcash gives the holder more control.
The shielded share has grown but still represents a minority of total ZEC activity, which weakens the privacy thesis the coin is sold on. Three risks deserve attention before sizing a position.
This page is information, not financial advice. Talk to someone licensed before allocating real capital.
Analysis last updated:
Zcash (ZEC) trades at $492.80 with a 24-hour volume of $136.84M and a market capitalization of $8.28B. The asset is currently ranked #15 among all tracked cryptocurrencies.
In the last 24 hours, the ZEC price has risen +3.28%. On a seven-day window, Zcash has retraced +11.93%, showing mixed signals between the short and medium term. Short-term moves are often amplified by liquidity, news flow, and derivatives positioning, so confirm signals across multiple indicators before acting.
Zcash's all-time high of $3,191.93 was set on October 29, 2016. The current price sits +84.56% below that peak. Distance from the all-time high is a common reference point when evaluating long recoveries and macro support or resistance.
Buying Zcash (ZEC) is a five-step routine once you have picked the right venue and pair. The steps below mirror what most investors do today.
You can also use the Zcash converter above to estimate how much ZEC you would get for a given dollar amount before placing the order.
Whether Zcash is a good investment depends on your goals, time horizon, and tolerance for volatility. Like all cryptocurrencies, ZEC carries real market risk: prices can rise or fall sharply in a day, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.
This page provides data and analysis for educational purposes only. It is not financial advice. Always do your own research, diversify, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
