Zcash breaks $1,600: what is driving privacy coins and how to buy ZEC and XMR without an exchange account
On September 22, Zcash climbed to $1,648 — a level it had only seen in the first hours after its 2016 launch. The whole privacy-coin sector has tripled since April. Here is who is buying, what could break the trend, and how to buy ZEC and XMR without opening an exchange account.
The rally in numbers
| Metric | April 9, 2026 | September 24, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy coin market cap | $11.97B | $36.51B |
| ZEC price | about $319 | about $1,520 |
| XMR price | about $330 | about $560 |
On September 22, ZEC reached $1,648.70 and held above $1,600 the next day. On September 24 it pulled back 6.4% to $1,523. Monero is rising more calmly: about +26% over the month.
What pushed Zcash up
- A US ETF. On August 25, Grayscale launched a Zcash exchange-traded fund — the first ETF on a privacy coin. Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into it within a month.
- A European product. On September 23, 21Shares listed a physically backed ZEC exchange-traded product on Euronext in Paris and Amsterdam.
- A network upgrade. 99.9% of voting ZEC holders backed cutting block time from 75 to 25 seconds. There is no launch date yet.
- Real demand. In September, weekly shielded transactions on Zcash hit their highest level since 2022: more and more coins bought on an exchange or through a crypto swap end up in shielded addresses.
Why Monero lags behind
Monero is the most private of the major coins: the sender, receiver and amount are hidden in every transaction by default. But in 2024 it was dropped by Binance, OKX and Kraken in Europe, and there is no ETF on XMR. Buying Monero through a big exchange has become harder: you can still exchange BTC to XMR without one, but no fund money flows into the coin — hence the calmer growth.
Risks
- Privacy coins are volatile: after its record, ZEC lost more than 6% in a day.
- Regulators keep pressuring privacy coins — new delistings are possible.
- Much of the rally rests on ETF inflows: if they stop, the price could pull back quickly.
How to buy ZEC and XMR without an exchange
You don't need to open an exchange account for a single coin. With VertEXchange you swap without signing up, and the coins go straight to your wallet: you can buy Zcash with USDT TRC20 or with bitcoin, and if you already hold ZEC, move part of it into Monero.
How Zcash privacy differs from Bitcoin's future privacy — see our breakdown of Shielded Bitcoin.
Swap BTC, ETH or USDT for Zcash without signing up — coins go straight to your wallet.
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