- Zashi Wallet will roll out fully private shielded ZEC purchases next week, powered by NEAR Intents, confirmed by ECC CEO Josh Swihart.
- While the market crashed, Zcash surged 16.55%, with over $10.3M in short liquidations fueling the rally.
- ZEC now holds a $9.34B market cap and is up 1,436% year-over-year, solidifying its lead as the top privacy coin.
Zcash is leveling up again. After years of people asking for easier, fully private ways to buy shielded ZEC, the feature is finally here — or basically here. According to Electric Coin Company CEO Josh Swihart, shielded ZEC purchases inside the Zashi Wallet will start shipping next week, powered by NEAR’s Intents system. And the timing honestly couldn’t be better, because ZEC is ripping higher while the rest of the market melts
down.
Zashi to Enable Private, Shielded ZEC Swaps
Swihart teased the update on Nov. 14 with a screenshot showing a simulated swap: 1 BTC → 170.30 ZEC, fully shielded, with the crossed-shield icon hinting at the private flow. This upgrade uses NEAR Intents, the cross-chain abstraction protocol that lets users swap into Zcash from other chains without exposing sensitive details.
Zashi actually added one direction of this flow already — swapping out of shielded ZEC to chains like Solana, NEAR, Bitcoin, Ethereum (and others) on Oct. 1. But now the missing piece is arriving: fully private swapping into shielded ZEC, even if you start from a transparent address.
Not everyone is thrilled with the technical tradeoffs yet. Onchain investigator ZachXBT praised Zashi’s UX — even comparing it favorably to Monero’s — but warned that refunds still route through transparent ZEC addresses, which could leak some info. Both Swihart and NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin responded, confirming deeper shielded functionality is coming.
ZEC Explodes as Market Crashes — Shorts Get Wiped Out
While the broader market was drowning on Nov. 14 — over $1.34B liquidated, mostly long positions — Zcash somehow rallied. And not just a little.
- $17.2M in ZEC was liquidated
- $10.3M of that came from short positions
- Nearly every other major coin saw long liquidations instead
So while BTC, ETH, SOL, and the rest bled out, ZEC shot 16.55% higher, breaking into levels nobody expected this fast. Year-over-year, ZEC is now up a jaw-dropping 1,436%, placing it firmly at the top of the privacy sector and pushing it to rank #14 with a $9.34B market cap.
As of this writing, Zcash trades at $572.88, riding one of the strongest rallies in the entire market.
Why Zcash Is Ripping: Privacy + UX + Liquidity Layers
This entire move has been driven by a perfect storm of upgrades:
- Zashi’s redesigned UX made shielded ZEC actually easy to use
- NEAR Intents acts as a “universal liquidity layer,” letting anyone buy or spend ZEC privately across chains
- Industry leaders across ecosystems are suddenly praising ZEC again
- And now, fully shielded purchases are days away
The privacy coin narrative is heating up again, and Zcash is clearly the one leading it this cycle. With shielded swaps landing in Zashi next week, the momentum might not slow down anytime soon.
