Monero (XMR) vs Zcash (ZEC): comparison
Side-by-side comparison of Monero and Zcash: how their prices moved, how they differ technically and what each is used for.
XMR and ZEC: key specs
| Monero (XMR) | Zcash (ZEC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $514.94 | $1,183.16 |
| Ticker | XMR | ZEC |
| Type | native blockchain coin | native blockchain coin |
| Launched | 2014 | 2016 |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (RandomX) | Proof of Work (Equihash) |
| Block time | ~2 min | ~1.3 min |
| Max supply | no cap | 21 M ZEC |
| Transaction privacy | by default | optional |
| Circulating supply | 18.8 M XMR | 16.93 M ZEC |
| Market cap | $9.68 B | $20.03 B |
| Market cap rank | #15 | #10 |
| Created by | — | Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn |
CoinGecko data as of Sep 11, 2026, 20:04. How we calculate the data
Price change: XMR vs ZEC
Both prices are set to 100 at the start of the period, so the chart shows which coin grew or fell more, not the prices themselves.
| Period | XMR | ZEC |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −1.85% | +14.95% |
| 30 days | +35.43% | +127.82% |
| 90 days | +51.05% | +160.49% |
The correlation of their daily price changes over the last 90 days is 0.22 (weak).
XMR or ZEC: what each is used for
- Private paymentsMonero and Zcash
- Payments and transfersMonero
How Monero and Zcash work
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 used 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 used 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.