How & where to buy Zcash (ZEC) online

Use our step-by-step guide to learn how and where to buy Zcash on the top 5+ crypto exchanges.
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Updated: May 11, 2023
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Zcash tokens are available on a cryptocurrency exchange, which functions similar to a stock trading platform. It takes just a few minutes to buy Zcash this way. Follow our quick step guide below.

How to buy Zcash instantly in 3 simple steps

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To buy Zcash you need a smartphone or a computer and an internet connection. It takes 10-15 minutes the first time and you should have some photo ID to hand. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1. Sign up to eToro

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eToro is the simplest crypto exchange to get started with. Create an account and supply a copy of your photo ID for verification.

1
Min. Deposit
$ 10
Best offer
User Score
10
Up to $240 bonus!
Build a diversified portfolio with crypto, stocks, and ETFs — all in one place.
Trade on the world’s leading social trading and investing platform
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
CySEC, FCA

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

Step 2. Make a deposit

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Add funds via a card payment, bank transfer or an alternative payment method. You can start with as little as $10.

Step 3. Buy Zcash token

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Type ZEC into the search box then click ‘trade’. Enter how much money you want to spend and hit ‘trade now’.

Now you own Zcash tokens! It’s as simple as that.

Where to buy ZEC easily

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The overall best exchange to buy Zcash token for beginners is eToro . Zcash is also available on lots of other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Here are the top three places to buy Zcash, ranked according to their simplicity for beginners, fees, customer reviews, and safety ratings.

1
Min. Deposit
$ 10
Best offer
User Score
10
Up to $240 bonus!
Build a diversified portfolio with crypto, stocks, and ETFs — all in one place.
Trade on the world's leading social trading and investing platform
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
CySEC, FCA

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

2
Min. Deposit
$ 0
Best offer
User Score
9.9
Get insights from millions of investors, creators, and analysts
Build your portfolio of stocks, ETFs, and crypto–all in one place
No minimum deposit
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Wire, Check, Debit Card, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
Cryptocurrency execution and custody services are provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849) through a software licensing agreement between Apex Crypto LLC and Public Crypto LLC. Crypto trading on Public platforms is served by Public Crypto LLC and offered through APEX Crypto. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved before trading.
3
Min. Deposit
$ 50
Best offer
User Score
9.2
Log in using the app and claim the Mystery Box to receive up to $10,000 in reward
One of the top digital asset exchanges by trading volume
Serving millions of users in over 100 countries
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
AdvCash, AliPay, American Express, Bank Transfer, Banxa, Credit Card, Debit Card, Discover, Mastercard, Mercada Pago, PayPal, Payoneer, PicPay, QIWI, SEPA, Simplex, Visa, WeChat, Wire Transfer, neteller, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , skrill
Full Regulations:
Trading in digital assets is considered high risk. Digital assets are NOT backed by any government or central bank. The risk of loss in trading or holding digital assets can be substantial. You should carefully consider whether interacting, holding, or trading digital assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition.

Read more about how we rate, rank and review platforms.

Best exchanges to buy Zcash (ZEC), reviewed

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1. eToro. Best for beginners, copy-trading & demo-account

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1500

No. assets

$10

Minimum deposit

Crypto

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Great for beginners, simple to set up and get started Zero commission stock trading Popular ‘CopyTrader’ function lets you follow top traders Excellent customer service, with live chat support provided Over 2,000 CFDs available to trade
Comparatively high fees for withdrawals and account inactivity Does not integrate with the MetaTrader platform High spreads on some assets

Overview

We love eToro because it makes it simple to trade crypto at home or on the go. If you’ve never bought cryptocurrency before, then eToro makes it simple to buy 75+ of the leading coins, including the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Every crypto trade comes with a flat 1% fee, which makes it one of the cheapest crypto brokers on the market to boot.

As well as being a broker that offers lots of investor protection, eToro offers a very social trading experience. You can easily see what’s trending on the crypto market every day, browse the latest technical analysis about every one of those tokens, and copy other people’s trade suggestions from your desktop or the eToro app.

The fees: You will be charged a 1% fee every time you buy or sell crypto. The charge is included in the market price that’s displayed on eToro. CFD trades may be charged an overnight or weekend fee if you leave the position open.

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

2. Public. Best for sharing beginner trading ideas

public.com logo
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...

No. assets

...

Minimum deposit

Crypto

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Commission free stock and ETF investing Share and compare your portfolio on a social trading platform Trade crypto, fractional shares, and alternative investments
You can't trade on margin or use leverage No forex, options, funds, metals, or bonds

Overview

We love Public because it’s a social platform where you can share trading tips and get ideas from other people. Public offers 9,000+ financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies and stocks from around the world.

Alongside a community of other investors all sharing their ideas, Public offers real time news and information so that you can see the full picture before you invest. And the assets don’t just include your run-of-the-mill assets; you can make alternative investments in things like handbags and comic books as well.

The fees: Cryptocurrency trades are charged a 2.5% fee per transaction. 

3. OKX. Best for futures and margin trading

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...

No. assets

$50

Minimum deposit

Crypto

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Stake ETH to freely mint FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 NFTs & big prizes 350+ cryptocurrencies & NFTs available across 650+ trading pairs Crypto spot & derivative markets available Pay using hundreds of local payment methods
Not available in the US Lack of fiat withdrawal options

Overview

We love OKX because it’s an adaptable and flexible exchange, with an app that’s available in three different versions depending on how you trade. Choose from the beginner-friendly Lite version, Web3 option for NFT traders, or the Pro version for a plethora of trading tools. 

From an app or desktop you can trade 350+ crypto coins on one of the world’s top crypto exchanges. You can fund your account easily, through a variety of simple payment methods, and a sliding scale of fees that means you can access discounts by holding the OKB token or trading high volumes.

The fees: Regular users pay a 0.1% fee on spot crypto trades. OKB crypto holders are entitled to a discount, up to 0.02% off for holding more than 2,000 coins. High volume traders are also entitled to a discount, with the cheapest fees available for traders with a 30 day trading volume above $10,000,000,000.

4. KuCoin. Best social trading altcoin exchange

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1

No. assets

...

Minimum deposit

Crypto

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Anonymous trading with up to 2 BTC withdrawals/24 hours Wide variety of cryptocurrencies No deposit fees
Low trading volumes not suitable for big traders Doesn’t support U.S. customers You might experience delays and lags during high-traffic times.

Overview

We love KuCoin because it;s a great place for beginners to trade more than 700 altcoins. KuCoin is a social trading platform with 20+ million investors worldwide in 200+ countries.

KuCoin’s beginner zone offers up rewards up to $500 for new users. The rest of the platform has plenty of features for the crypto enthusiast: a staking service to earn money on your stored crypto, an NFT marketplace, and margin trading features to buy leveraged tokens.

The fees: Trading fees are charged on a sliding scale. Fees are 0.1% on trading volumes below 50 BTC in a 30 day period. Discounts are available if you pay fees in KCS or store more than 1000 KCS in your account.

How to trade ZEC

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You can trade Zcash on a cryptocurrency exchange using a few simple steps. Here’s a quick example that clearly lays out how ZEC crypto trading works:

  1. Monitor the price: Let’s say the price of ZEC/USDT is $1. You read the price charts and decide that now is a good time to start purchasing ZEC.
  2. Open a trade: You trade one USDT for one ZEC ($1 for 1 ZEC).
  3. Continue to monitor the price: The next day, one ZEC token is now worth $2, a 100% increase.
  4. Close your trade: You trade your ZEC token back to USDT for $2.

In this example, you buy and sell Zcash, doubling your money (trading). While the steps are simple, executing them in a profitable way is not so easy. You need to spend many hours learning to trade, reading charts, patterns, and understanding markets and margin trading; which you can do right here on Invezz.com.

1
Min. Deposit
$ 10
Best offer
User Score
10
Up to $240 bonus!
Build a diversified portfolio with crypto, stocks, and ETFs — all in one place.
Trade on the world's leading social trading and investing platform
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
CySEC, FCA

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

What is the best way to pay for Zcash (ZEC)?

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The simplest way to buy Zcash cryptocurrency is with your bank card. However, there are plenty of other options as well. Here are some of the top ways to pay for ZEC.

  • Buy Zcash with a credit card or debit card. Card payments are convenient and instantaneous but you may have to pay a higher fee to make a deposit this way. Binance charges 1.8% for a card deposit and some platforms charge as much as 4%.
  • Buy Zcash with bank transfer. A bank transfer is usually the cheapest way to buy crypto. Crypto platforms like Crypto.com and Coinbase do not charge for bank transfer deposits, while Binance only charges a £1 fee, and these transactions are more or less instant as they run through the Faster Payments System (FPS).
  • Buy Zcash with PayPal. Some crypto brokers accept deposits via PayPal. eToro is the best option because it doesn’t charge a fee for PayPal deposits, whereas the charge can be as high as 5% or more with other platforms.
  • Alternative payment methods. Crypto brokers often let you pay with other providers or money transfer services, like Neteller, Venmo, or Payoneer. The options vary by broker, though, so check what’s accepted before you sign up.

How do I store Zcash (ZEC)?

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Most people keep their crypto on the exchange they used to buy it. If you only plan to hold onto it for a little while then that’s a perfectly acceptable option. If you want to hold it for years or you own a lot of Zcash then you should move it to a crypto wallet.

A crypto exchange is similar to a bank account, in that it means trusting a company to protect your funds for you. A wallet is like your personal wallet, or a safe, where you take responsibility for it yourself. Two of the best Zcash wallets to use are MetaMask and the Ledger Nano S.

Is Zcash (ZEC) a good investment?

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Whether it’s good for you depends on your goals and the fundamentals of the project. Here are some key features of Zcash and its token to help you decide whether to invest in ZEC.

  • Zcash is an alternative to Bitcoin and allows for complete anonymity. Unlike Bitcoin, which records the details of each transaction on its public ledger, Zcash allows users to keep their identity completely secret by enabling them to perform transactions without revealing their addresses, transaction amounts, or other identifying information.
  • Zcash is arguably more true to its ideals compared to other cryptos. Bitcoin was initially marketed as a decentralised and anonymous currency, but it has become more centralised and transactions can be traced. Zcash, on the other hand, places a strong emphasis on privacy and anonymity and has implemented advanced cryptography to ensure this.
  • Zcash can be used as a form of payment. Zcash can be used to purchase goods and services from a few merchants that accept it as a form of payment. The Moon app allows anyone to spend Zcash anywhere that accepts Visa by converting Zcash into fiat currency.
  • It encrypts each transaction. Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt the details of each transaction, making it impossible for anyone to trace the details of the transaction.
  • Zcash’s anonymity can be attractive to crypto enthusiasts. The anonymity provided by Zcash makes it an attractive option for people who value privacy and want to keep their financial information and activities private. This can include cryptocurrency enthusiasts and anyone who wants to stay anonymous online.
  • Cryptocurrency regulations may hurt Zcash. Its anonymity can also be associated with illegal activities, which may negatively impact its reputation and result in increased regulation in the future. This could work against Zcash in the long term if there is a crackdown on anonymous cryptocurrencies.
  • Zcash faces competition from coins like Monero and Dash. Zcash is just one of many coins that prioritise privacy and anonymity. Other coins like Monero and Dash have been around for longer and were created to be more secretive than Bitcoin. This competition could make it more challenging for Zcash to gain widespread adoption.

Use this quick summary of pros and cons to compare Zcash with other, similar projects.

Pros

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  • Zcash prioritises anonymity and keeping your transactions secret
  • Its otherwise very similar to Bitcoin, with the same security
  • You can spend it with participating merchants already
  • Some of its tech is already used by JP Morgan Chase

Cons

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Ultimately, many different factors play into the answer. Cryptocurrency is inherently volatile but you can reduce the risks by investing in quality projects that provide value to the community.

How has Zcash (ZEC) performed this year?

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The current Zcash price today is $44.75, which is 87.92% below its all time high of $372, which it reached on 12 May, 2021. ZEC is up 20.16% this year, with a 52 week high of $212.17 and a 52 week low of $34.16. 

Is now a good time to buy Zcash?

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The answer depends on the current price and your own investment goals. Put simply, buying Zcash, selling Zcash, and trading ZEC are all the exact same process. It’s really just your personal investing intentions that defines whether now is a good time to invest or not.

  • If you’re a trader: as a cryptocurrency trader, your goal is to make money trading regularly. What do we mean by regularly? Hourly, daily, weekly. Traders buy and sell a coin quickly to secure their profit (or to avoid a loss). They don’t #hodl that coin long term in the hopes of larger profits. In this sense, any time is a good time to buy Zcash.
  • As a long-term investor: a long term investor is not concerned if the price is up or down 10% on any given day. Rather, they care that the price of the native token is overall up months or years later, when they’re ready to sell that investment. So if you’re a firm believer in the foundations of Zcash and its decentralised aggregator platform, then a good time to purchase Zcash is on any major dip.

In our experience, most newcomers to the crypto market sit between the two. You don’t want to wait several years for a return, but buying Zcash and selling it the next day probably isn’t why you’re here either.

Regardless, closely following ZEC price news & analysis will help you decide when to pull the trigger:

Latest ZCash news

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Namada, a new proof-of-stake L1 blockchain that offers interchain asset-agnostic privacy, has proposed a strategic alliance with privacy-focused blockchain Zcash. The price of the native token ZEC rose more than 7% to trade around $42 following the Zcash news. As part of the collaboration, Namada wi
Zcash ZEC/USD is a fork of Bitcoin BTC/USD, which was developed to introduce a higher level of privacy and anonymity to the crypto space. Zcash verifies ownership of coins and transactions through anonymous means and provides a heightened level of security across all of its users. Its native cryptoc
The government surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden ended up revealing that he played a pivotal role in the creation of the privacy token known as Zcash ZEC/USD.  There was a video posted by Zcash Media that featured an interview with Snowden, where he outlined his involvement as one of th
The cryptocurrency market is currently exhibiting signs of a strong recovery towards higher levels. Different coins have attempted to rally towards new highs, and Zcash (ZEC/USD) has not been left behind. ZEC has made double-digit gains of 13.7% during the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, this
The cryptocurrency market has started the week with a slight recovery. After Bitcoin threatened to dip below $38K, it has bounced again to test $40K. This slight uptrend has been mimicked by other coins in the market. Zcash (ZEC/USD) is among the tokens moving in tandem with the rest of the market.
Monero XMR/USD was developed as a means of enabling transactions to occur privately and with anonymity.  Zcash ZEC/USD is a decentralized cryptocurrency specifically focused on privacy and anonymity that uses the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proof technology. Decred DCR/USD utilizes a hybrid consens

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Sources & references
Risk disclaimer
James Knight
Editor of Education
James is a lead content editor for Invezz. He's an avid trader and golfer, who spends an inordinate amount of time watching Leicester City and the... read more.
Prash Raval
Financial Writer
When not researching stocks or trading, Prash can be found either on the golf course, walking his dog or teaching his son how to kick a... read more.