TL;DR:
- Zcash will launch quantum-recovery wallets in less than a month and aims to achieve full post-quantum status within 12 to 18 months.
- ZEC has gained over 110% in the last 30 days, driven by a Multicoin Capital investment and strong market interest in privacy-focused assets.
- Zcash’s shielded pool reached an all-time high, concentrating nearly 30% of circulating ZEC, backed by real flows through Near Intents.
Zcash announced at Consensus Miami that it will launch quantum-recovery wallets in less than a month and will achieve full post-quantum status within 12 to 18 months. Josh Swihart, founder and CEO of Zcash Open Development Lab, presented the roadmap to an audience in a session moderated by Mert Mumtaz, founder of Helius, a Solana infrastructure firm. The team is also working on a second objective: scaling the network to reach the transaction processing level of Mastercard and Visa within a similar timeframe.
ZEC is receiving strong market backing. The token has gained over 110% in the last 30 days, driven by the disclosure of a Multicoin Capital investment and intense investor enthusiasm for privacy-focused assets. Tushar Jain, from Multicoin, argued this week that visible balances on transparent ledgers expose users’ holdings to state intervention, a point Swihart also developed in his presentation.
Bitcoin No Longer Cuts It as Cypherpunk Money
Swihart argued that Bitcoin has stopped fulfilling the promise of private peer-to-peer money for which it was conceived. It functions as a store of value and as a wrapper for an ETF, he acknowledged, but as a private payment system it is “fundamentally broken.” The critique targets directly the visibility of balances on a transparent chain, which allows governments and third parties to identify and potentially seize assets.
The Growth Engine Behind Zcash (ZEC)
Real adoption of Zcash is being channeled through the mobile wallet of Electric Coin Company. Since the integration carried out in October with Near Intents, users can convert assets such as BTC, SOL or USDC directly into shielded ZEC through cross-chain swaps. Near Intents allow the user to express their intent, such as converting USDC into ZEC, while specialized routers execute the operation across multiple chains in the background.
Since launch, between $600 and $700 million have moved through that route, primarily in transactions involving USD and USDC. The Near Protocol system processed nearly $800 million in volume in the last 30 days alone, with Ethereum, Solana and Zcash leading the chain rankings.
Additionally, the project’s community forum is discussing a proposal to reduce block time from 75 to 25 seconds, while bridges to Solana and Hyperliquid are already active. A holder voting tool through Zashi is also planned, designed not as formal governance but as an opinion layer that feeds the project’s rough consensus model.
