Monero vs Zcash: privacy, supply, mining and exchange access compared in 2027

The key difference in a nutshell

Both coins exist for private payments, but they approach privacy from different directions. In Monero privacy is always on: there is simply no button that would make a transfer public. Zcash has two worlds: transparent addresses, where everything is visible just like in Bitcoin, and shielded ones, where the sender, the recipient and the amount are hidden. Which one gets used is up to the wallet and the person holding it.

Almost everything else follows from this: how analysts trace the coins, why exchanges treat them differently, which wallets you need and what you can reveal voluntarily. Below we go through it step by step, checking against the Monero documentation and the Zcash specifications (ZIPs).

How Monero hides transactions

Monero launched in 2014. Every transaction hides three things at once:

• Ring signatures hide the sender. The real output being spent is mixed with 15 decoy outputs taken from the blockchain. An observer sees a ring of 16 members and cannot tell which one paid. The ring size of 16 has been in place since August 2022.
• Stealth addresses hide the recipient. The wallet's public address never appears on the blockchain: each payment goes to a one-time address that only the owner can link to themselves. Primary addresses start with 4, subaddresses with 8.
• RingCT hides the amount. Amounts are encrypted, yet the network still verifies that no coins were created out of thin air.

This approach has one big advantage: since every transfer is private, yours does not stand out from the rest. Ring decoys are drawn from a shared blockchain where every output is also hidden, so the crowd is the same for every user, from a miner to an online shop.

The weak spot of ring signatures is that 15 decoys is a small crowd. For years researchers have shown how timing and behavior can help guess the real output. That is why the community is preparing a major upgrade called FCMP++: instead of 16 members, a transfer will hide among every output in the network's history, which is more than 150 million. The testnet is scheduled to switch on October 5, and no mainnet date has been set yet. We have covered separately how the FCMP++ upgrade will replace Monero ring signatures.

The XMR rate and key network facts are collected on the Monero coin page.

How Zcash privacy works

Zcash launched in 2016 and was the first to put zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proofs into practical use. A shielded transfer proves to the network that it is valid without revealing addresses or amounts. Instead of a ring of 16, the anonymity set is every shielded coin in the pool: the transfer could be any of them.

The catch is that Zcash has several kinds of addresses, and not all of them are private:

Unified u1 addresses arrived in 2022 together with the Orchard pool. Orchard ran on the Halo 2 proof system, which needs no trusted setup. In July 2026 the network moved to a new pool called Ironwood: the same protocol as Orchard, backed by formal verification and extra audits. Orchard was closed to new transfers, coins can only be moved out of it, and existing u1 addresses keep working.

The number that matters most for this comparison is how much ZEC is actually hidden. According to the zecstats tracker, as of October 3, 2026 about 4.94 million ZEC, or 29.1% of all coins, sits in shielded pools, with 4.06 million already in Ironwood. Crypto.news reported the same 29% in September. So roughly 7 out of 10 ZEC are still held on transparent addresses, and their movements are visible to everyone.

That makes mistakes easy in Zcash. If you move 10 ZEC from a transparent address into the shielded pool and an hour later send the same 10 ZEC to another transparent address, the link shows through the amount and timing, even though the transfer inside the pool was hidden. This is why wallets like Zodl keep coins in the shielded pool by default and offer to shield anything that lands on a transparent address. The longer coins stay inside and the more people are there, the harder it is to link the way in with the way out.

The next step is the NU7 upgrade, which the Zcash team has targeted for November 5, 2026. A final decision on the date is expected on October 20. We explained what the Zcash NU7 upgrade and the Sprout pool shutdown change in a separate article. You can also get ZEC without a trading platform: through a crypto exchange without registration the coins arrive at your own address, and all that's left is to shield them in your wallet.

Monero vs Zcash comparison table

Everything that sets the two networks apart, as of October 3, 2026:

Supply: infinite or 21 million

Monero's main emission ended in May 2022, when about 18.13 million XMR had been issued. Since then every block pays miners a fixed 0.6 XMR, and it will stay that way forever. This is called the tail emission. Inflation is below 1% a year and keeps falling slowly, because the addition is fixed while the total supply grows. The point of the tail is to give miners a reason to secure the network even when fees alone are not enough.

Zcash works more like Bitcoin: the cap is 21 million ZEC, and the block reward halves every 1,680,000 blocks, roughly every four years. The last halving took place in November 2024, cutting the reward from 3.125 to 1.5625 ZEC, and the next one is expected in late 2028. After NU7 blocks will come three times faster, but daily ZEC issuance and the halving schedule stay the same. Part of the Zcash reward does not go to miners: they get 80%, 8% goes to the community grants fund and 12% is set aside in a reserve for future community decisions.

Blocks, fees and speed

A Monero block arrives every 2 minutes. Received XMR can be spent after 10 confirmations, roughly 20 minutes. The fee depends on the transaction size in bytes rather than the amount, and at normal priority it is usually a few cents.

A Zcash block arrives every 75 seconds. The minimum fee for a simple transfer under the ZIP 317 rule is 0.0001 ZEC, and it also grows with the number of inputs and outputs rather than the amount. Exchange services and exchanges wait for 10 to 24 confirmations, roughly 12 to 30 minutes. After NU7 a block will arrive every 25 seconds, and waiting times will drop noticeably.

Mining: CPU vs ASIC

Since November 2019 Monero has been mined with the RandomX algorithm. It is designed for ordinary computer processors, and specialized devices gain too little from it. The community holds to this on principle: the more people can mine on their own computer, the harder it is to concentrate hashing power in a few hands. Many miners use the decentralized P2Pool.

Zcash is mined with the Equihash algorithm. It was also meant to resist specialized hardware, but Equihash ASIC miners appeared on the market in 2018, and today ZEC mining runs almost entirely on them. Mining ZEC on a home computer with any noticeable result is no longer realistic.

Exchanges and delistings

Regulators struggle with a coin where you cannot see who paid whom and how much. That is why Monero was hit first and hardest:

• OKX removed XMR on January 5, 2024.
• Binance followed on February 20, 2024.
• Kraken delisted it across the European Economic Area on October 31, 2024.

You can still get XMR without them: we walked through how to buy Monero after the big exchanges delisted it step by step.

Zcash holds up better on exchanges precisely because of transparent addresses: an exchange can accept and pay out ZEC through them only. It has not escaped pressure either: OKX delisted ZEC from January 2024 to November 2025, Binance put a monitoring tag on the coin, and in September 2026 Kraken completed the ZEC delisting for clients in the UAE. From July 10, 2027 the EU anti-money laundering regulation bans crypto service providers from handling privacy-enhancing coins. It does not stop individuals from holding such coins in their own wallets.

Selective disclosure: viewing keys

Privacy does not mean a transfer can never be shown. Both networks have viewing keys that grant the right to look but not to spend.

Every Monero wallet has a private view key. With it you can open a view-only wallet and see all incoming payments, for example for an accountant or an auditor. To prove a specific outgoing payment, the wallet provides a transaction key. Zcash keys are more flexible: an incoming viewing key shows only receipts, a full viewing key shows both receipts and spends. Since 2022 these keys come in a unified format (ZIP 316): the full key starts with uview, the incoming one with uivk. This way you can report to a tax office or a business partner without exposing your other wallets.

Which one fits whom

The choice depends on what you need, not on which coin is "better". There is no investment advice here: both coins swing sharply in price.

• Monero is simpler for people who do not want to think about settings: every transfer is private, and you cannot accidentally send one in the open. If you hold Bitcoin, you can exchange Bitcoin for Monero without registration and receive XMR straight to your wallet.
• Zcash suits those who want a choice: some operations in the open, some in the shielded pool, plus flexible viewing keys. The shortest route is to buy Zcash with Bitcoin to a transparent t1 address and then shield the coins in your wallet.
• Both coins are held by people who do not want to depend on a single technology: Monero has the bigger crowd in practice, Zcash has stronger math inside the shielded pool.

At VertEXchange the exchange needs no account: the coins arrive at the address you provide.

FAQ

Which is more anonymous, Monero or Zcash?

By default, Monero, because every transfer is hidden. A shielded Zcash transfer technically hides more than a ring of 16, but only about 29% of ZEC sits in shielded pools, and moves between the transparent and shielded sides are visible and can give a person away.

Where can I buy Monero or Zcash without an exchange?

By swapping one coin for another straight into your own wallet, with no registration. Our step-by-step guides cover how to buy Monero after the delistings and how to buy Zcash and shield it right away.

Can Monero and Zcash be traced?

Transparent Zcash transfers are as easy to trace as Bitcoin. Shielded transfers and Monero transfers hide addresses and amounts, but there are no guarantees: people are more often exposed by a KYC exchange, an IP address or repeated amounts than by the blockchain itself.

Why do exchanges delist Monero and Zcash?

Because of regulatory requirements: an exchange has to know where funds came from, and privacy coins do not show that. Monero left Binance, OKX and Kraken in the EEA in 2024. Zcash stays on some exchanges because they accept it through transparent addresses.

What is the best wallet for Monero and Zcash?

For Monero, the official Monero GUI or Feather Wallet on desktop and Cake Wallet on mobile. For Zcash, Zodl (formerly Zashi) or Zingo with Ironwood pool support. Cake Wallet holds both coins at once.

What are Monero and Zcash fees and transaction speed?

A Monero block arrives every 2 minutes, received coins become spendable after about 20 minutes, and the fee is usually a few cents. A Zcash block arrives every 75 seconds, the minimum fee is 0.0001 ZEC, and services wait 12 to 30 minutes. After NU7 Zcash blocks will be 25 seconds.

What is a Monero view key and a Zcash viewing key?

A key that lets someone see a wallet's transactions but not spend the coins. In Monero it shows incoming payments; in Zcash there is an incoming key and a full key that also shows spends.

Can I exchange Zcash for Monero?

Yes. Without registration you can swap Zcash for Monero directly: you send ZEC, and XMR arrives at your Monero address.