Bitcoin vs Zcash
A side-by-side look at Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC) — live price, market capitalization, supply, all-time records and project fundamentals. Figures refresh hourly from public market data. For informational purposes only; not financial advice.
Bitcoin vs Zcash: Key Metrics
| Metric | BTC | ZEC |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap rank | #1 | #16 |
| Price | $62,740.53 | $460.75 |
| Market capitalization | $1.26T | $7.52B |
| 24-hour trading volume | $30.32B | $537.51M |
| 24-hour change | -4.81% | -7.31% |
| Circulating supply | 20,043,646 | 16,770,650 |
| Maximum supply | 21,000,000 | 21,000,000 |
| All-time high | $126,080.00 | $3,191.93 |
| All-time low | $67.81 | $16.08 |
| Genesis / launch | January 3, 2009 | October 28, 2016 |
| Hashing algorithm | SHA-256 | Equihash |
| Categories tracked | 8 | 10 |
Bold values mark the larger figure for size-based metrics (market cap, volume). Larger is not inherently “better.”
What Are Bitcoin and Zcash?
Bitcoin BTC
Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It enables peer-to-peer electronic cash transactions without intermediaries like banks or governments, operating on a blockchain secured by Proof of Work mining and the SHA-256 cryptographic algorithm. With a fixed supply cap of 21 million coins and programmatic halvings every four years that reduce miner rewards, Bitcoin is designed as a deflationary digital asset often called "digital gold." Its value stems from solving the double-spending problem without trusted intermediaries, creating the first truly scarce digital asset with censorship resistance and permissionless access that no government, corporation, or individual can control. Bitcoin operates as a decentralized peer-to-peer network where transactions are recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, distributed across thousands of computers globally.
Full Bitcoin profile →Zcash ZEC
Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses trustless zero-knowledge proofs to enable fully encrypted transactions while maintaining blockchain transparency and security. It was the first cryptocurrency to implement zero-knowledge encryption for private peer-to-peer payments, addressing the fundamental privacy gap in traditional cryptocurrencies that expose transaction details publicly. With a fixed supply of 21 million ZEC and a halving schedule similar to Bitcoin, Zcash allows users to prove transactions are valid without revealing sensitive information like wallet balances, transaction amounts, or participant identities, making it suitable for everyday payments, long-term savings, and cross-border money transfers where financial confidentiality matters. The protocol operates on its own blockchain currently using Proof-of-Work consensus, though it's evolving toward Proof-of-Stake through the planned "Crosslink" upgrade to enhance security, scalability, and energy efficiency.
Full Zcash profile →Category Overlap
How Bitcoin and Zcash are classified by CoinPaprika, and where they overlap.