What a privacy coin is
A privacy coin is a cryptocurrency that is built to hide the details of a payment. On most blockchains, anyone can see which address paid which, how much moved and what each address holds. A privacy coin hides some or all of that from people who were not part of the payment.
Bitcoin shows why this matters. The Bitcoin project says every transaction is stored in public, for good. If someone knows one of your addresses, they can read its balance and its history. A privacy coin is designed to stop that.
Privacy coins differ in two ways:
- What they hide. The sender, the receiver, the amount, or only the link between coins.
- Whether privacy is on by default. Some coins protect every payment. Others protect only the payments where you choose to use the private mode.
Monero and Zcash are the best known examples. Dash is often named too, although its privacy works in a different way.
How Monero hides payments
Monero is private by default. The Monero FAQ says every transaction is private by rule, so you cannot send a public one by mistake. Three tools share the work.
Ring signatures hide the sender. When you spend, your wallet signs as one member of a group of outputs. The group holds your real output and decoys taken from the chain. Since the network upgrade of August 2022, each group has 16 members. An observer cannot tell which one was spent.
Stealth addresses hide the receiver. The sender’s wallet makes a new one-time address for every payment. Your published address never appears on the chain, so two payments to it look unrelated.
RingCT hides the amount. Ring Confidential Transactions hide how much moved, while the network can still check that no coins were created from nothing.
The next step is a planned upgrade called FCMP++, short for Full-Chain Membership Proofs. The Monero project describes it as a replacement for rings: the spent output could be any output on the chain, not one of 16. Our Monero FCMP++ tracker follows its status and which wallets support it.
Monero protects what is on the chain. Your IP address, the services you use and the timing of your payments are outside it. Our guide Is Monero traceable? covers what research has found and the habits that keep your privacy strong.
How Zcash hides payments
Zcash is private by choice. It runs two kinds of address on one chain.
- Transparent addresses start with t and work like Bitcoin addresses. Their amounts and balances are public.
- Shielded addresses keep funds in a shielded pool. Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs, which prove a payment is valid without showing who paid whom or how much.
A payment between two shielded addresses hides the sender, the receiver and the amount. When ZEC moves into or out of a shielded pool, the amount of that move is public. So your privacy depends on the addresses you and the other side use.
Unified addresses, defined in ZIP 316, bundle several address types into one string. Wallets that support them can keep your ZEC shielded without extra steps. Our guide how to shield Zcash shows how to move ZEC into a shielded pool, and Zcash vs Monero compares the two coins in depth.
Other coins with privacy features
Some coins that are not private by default offer an optional privacy feature. Dash is the most common example. Its transactions are public, like Bitcoin’s. Its wallet software has an optional CoinJoin-style feature. When you turn it on, your coins are combined with coins from other users in shared transactions, so the link between old and new coins is harder to follow. Addresses and amounts stay on the public chain.
This is a different model from Monero and Zcash. It hides the link between coins only when you use the feature, and it does not hide amounts.
Privacy coins compared
| Monero (XMR) | Zcash (ZEC) | Dash (DASH) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private by default | Yes, every transaction | No. Only shielded payments | No. Only when the optional feature is used |
| What is hidden | Sender, receiver and amount | Sender, receiver and amount between shielded addresses | The link between coins, when the feature is used. Amounts stay public |
| How | Ring signatures, stealth addresses, RingCT | Zero-knowledge proofs in shielded pools | Shared CoinJoin-style transactions |
| Supply | No maximum. Tail emission of 0.6 XMR per block since June 2022 | Capped at 21 million ZEC | The block reward falls by one fourteenth every 210,240 blocks |
| Block time | About 2 minutes | About 75 seconds | About 2.5 minutes |
The rows come from each project’s own documents and source code, listed under Sources.
Why exchanges delist privacy coins
Since 2024, several large exchanges have removed Monero in some or all regions. Their notices gave reasons such as listing criteria or a regular review of the assets they list. Our Monero delisting tracker keeps a dated, sourced record of each notice.
The common thread is how the chain works. On Bitcoin, a platform can read the history of the coins it receives. On Monero, and on shielded Zcash, it cannot. Rules for regulated firms are written with readable chains in mind, so many platforms choose to drop coins whose history they cannot read.
The EU has set a date for this. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 stops regulated crypto firms in the EU from keeping accounts for privacy coins from 10 July 2027. Our page on the EU privacy coin rule for 2027 counts down to that date and explains what it covers.
A delisting changes where you can swap a coin. It does not change how the network works, and coins in your own wallet stay where they are.
Are privacy coins legal?
In many places, holding a privacy coin in your own wallet is legal, and the networks keep running. The rules that do exist are mostly written for firms, not for people.
The EU rule is a good example. It sets duties for regulated firms such as exchanges, brokers and custodians. It does not address coins that people keep in their own wallets.
Rules differ from place to place, and they change. Check the rules that apply where you live. This guide explains how the coins work. It is not legal advice.
How to get a privacy coin without an account
If you already hold another coin, you can swap it for a privacy coin with no account, no email and no ID.
- For Monero, use the Bitcoin to Monero swap. Our step by step guide on how to swap BTC to XMR with no KYC walks through each check. The Monero coin page lists every pair into and out of XMR.
- For Zcash, use the Bitcoin to Zcash swap. Check which address types the swap accepts, and shield your ZEC soon after it arrives. The Zcash coin page explains the address types.
Receive to a wallet you control. For Monero, use a new subaddress for each swap. For Zcash, keep your coins shielded. Your deposit on the coin you send stays visible on its own chain, so your privacy starts when the new coins arrive.
Quick answers
What is the simplest definition of a privacy coin? It is a cryptocurrency that hides payment details, such as the sender, the receiver or the amount, that most blockchains show to everyone.
Which privacy coin is private by default? Monero. Every Monero transaction hides the sender, the receiver and the amount. Zcash and Dash offer privacy only when you choose it.
Is Bitcoin a privacy coin? No. Every Bitcoin payment is public and stays on the chain for good.
Can privacy coins be traced? Monero hides the sender, the receiver and the amount on the chain, but things around the chain, such as your IP address or an account at a service, can still link payments to you. A transparent Zcash payment is as public as a Bitcoin one.
Where can I swap for a privacy coin without an account? On HiddenSwap you can swap BTC to XMR or BTC to ZEC with no account, no email and no ID.