Monero (XMR) against Zcash (ZEC)
Monero and Zcash next to each other: how the prices travelled, what differs under the hood and what each coin is built for.
XMR and ZEC: what is under the hood
| Monero (XMR) | Zcash (ZEC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $501.22 | $1,360.58 |
| Ticker | XMR | ZEC |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2014 | 2016 |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (RandomX) | Proof of Work (Equihash) |
| Block | ~2 min | ~1.3 min |
| Supply cap | no cap | 21 M ZEC |
| Privacy | always on | optional |
| In circulation | 18.81 M XMR | 16.94 M ZEC |
| Market cap | $9.43 B | $23.1 B |
| Rank by cap | #14 | #10 |
| Built by | — | Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn |
Source: CoinGecko, Sep 17, 2026 15:54. Where these numbers come from
Who went where: XMR and ZEC
Both prices start the period at 100, so the chart shows which one rose or fell harder — not the prices themselves.
| Period | XMR | ZEC |
|---|---|---|
| Week | −2.32% | +9.62% |
| Month | +20.59% | +165.41% |
| Quarter | +56.98% | +199.42% |
Over the quarter their daily moves line up at 0.3 (they travel apart).
What each one is built for: XMR and ZEC
- Private paymentsMonero and Zcash
- Payments and transfersMonero
How Monero and Zcash are built
How Monero works
Every transaction hides its details by default: ring signatures mix the real sender with decoys, stealth addresses create a one-time destination for each payment, and RingCT hides the amount. Mining uses the RandomX algorithm, designed for ordinary processors, with a new block about every 2 minutes. After the main emission ended, a small permanent reward of 0.6 XMR per block keeps miners paid.
What Monero is for
Monero is used for private payments and savings, when users do not want their balance and history to be visible to anyone who knows their address. Because all coins look the same on-chain, XMR is fully fungible.
How Zcash works
Zcash has two kinds of addresses: transparent ones, which work like Bitcoin, and shielded ones, where the sender, recipient and amount are encrypted with zk-SNARK proofs. Blocks are produced about every 75 seconds with Proof of Work (Equihash), and the supply is capped at 21 million.
What Zcash is for
ZEC is used for payments where the user chooses the level of privacy: an open transfer for transparency or a shielded transfer for confidentiality.