Guide
How to swap to shielded ZEC
Pay with any token on the list, and get ZEC in your own shielded Zcash wallet. You send one transfer, with no account and no wallet connection.
What shielded ZEC is
Zcash has two kinds of address. A transparent address starts with t1, and everything about its transfers is public. Transfers between shielded addresses hide the sender, the recipient and the amount.
Your Zcash wallet gives you a Unified Address. It starts with u1, and one address can hold more than one receiver. For a private payout, use an address that gets only shielded ZEC: in your Zcash wallet, open Receive and copy the shielded address.
What you need
- A Zcash wallet, such as Zodl, and a new shielded address from it.
- The token you pay with, in any wallet you control. Zecret Swap does not connect to it.
- A refund address of your own on the chain you pay from, not an exchange's. If the swap can't finish, NEAR Intents sends your deposit back there, minus a refund fee.
- An amount from $5 to $50,000 a swap.
The steps
- Open the swap page. Pick the token you pay with, and type the amount.
- Choose ZEC as the token you get.
- Paste your shielded address where the ZEC goes. Use a new one for each swap. Your wallet can make as many as you like.
- Paste your refund address.
- Check your swap. Before it shows a deposit address, your browser checks NEAR Intents' signature on the quote, and that the quote is the swap you asked for.
- Send exactly the amount shown to the deposit address, in one transfer from your wallet.
- Wait for the ZEC. Once a deposit confirms, a swap takes seconds on fast chains, 8 to 13 minutes for Bitcoin, and up to 30 minutes from other slow chains. Your Zcash wallet may need a few minutes to sync before it shows.
What stays private
NEAR's public record lists a confidential swap as two rows, and no field links them. A small set of operators runs NEAR's private chain and can see the swap.
The payout into your shielded wallet shows its address and amount. What you do with the ZEC after that stays hidden.
Public-chain steps, such as your deposit, can reveal addresses, amounts and timing. Our privacy policy lists what our server, our host and NEAR Intents see.
Swap back out later
When you choose, swap the ZEC to any token from your shielded wallet. The two swaps make a Double hop: one swap into your own shielded ZEC, then a second swap that you make when you choose. The longer you wait before you swap out, the harder it is to link the two swaps.
When you pay with ZEC, give a t1 address for refunds. NEAR Intents refunds ZEC to a transparent address only, and a refund there is public. In Zodl, it is under Receive, Transparent Address.
Get paid in shielded ZEC
The Receive page makes a payment link that anyone can pay with any token, and you get shielded ZEC.
Can the ZEC go to a t1 address?
Yes, but everything about a payout to it is public. The swap page asks you to tick Not private first.
What if my u1 address has a transparent receiver?
NEAR Intents may pay the ZEC to that receiver, in public. In your Zcash wallet, open Receive and copy the shielded address.
Does an older shielded address work?
No. Zecret Swap can't pay the older kind, which starts with zs. Use a Unified Address.
What does it cost?
Zecret Swap charges 0.4% of each swap, and NEAR Intents about 0.2% (less on stablecoin pairs). The quote shows every fee before you send. A Double hop's second swap pays both fees again.
Updated November 8, 2026.