Coinbase Pro Begins Supporting Privacy Centered Crypto Zcash

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Pro has added Zcash (ZEC) support, Coinbase announced on 29 November in a blog post.

The announcement says
“At 10am PT on Thursday, November 29, we will begin accepting inbound transfers of Zcash (ZEC) on Coinbase Pro. We will accept deposits for at least 12 hours prior to enabling trading. Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading on the ZEC/USDC order book will start.”

ZEC trading will initially be available to users of Coinbase Pro residing in the United States (excluding NY), the UK, the European Union, Canada, Singapore and Australia. The announcement states that ZEC trading will take place in four stages–transfer-only, post-only, limit-only and full trading.

Zcash, a privacy – focused cryptocurrency, is currently one of the top 20 market capitalization cryptocurrencies. ZEC/USD lost 5.63% to $ 82.24 (Kraken) at the time of writing. Coinbase explained that Zcash offers “transparent” and “shielded” transactions that are “analogous to the distinction between unencrypted HTTP and encrypted HTTPS.” In both cases, the unencrypted protocol version allows third parties to see transaction-related metadata, while the encrypted version protects this information.

Regarding ZCash support, Coinbase said “Initially, we will support deposits from both transparent and shielded addresses, but only support withdrawals to transparent addresses. In the future, we’ll explore support for withdrawals to shielded addresses in locations where it complies with local laws.”

Christine Sandler, head of sales at Coinbase, told earlier this week that the company has launched OTC trading for its top customers.