Zcash just gained something it has never had before: a fully permissionless trading venue. THORChain launched its ZEC liquidity pool on October 2, opening the door to native Zcash swaps without wrapped tokens, intermediaries or gatekeepers.
By Priya Sharma | October 2, 2026
THORChain announced that a network churn — a coordinated reset of its validator set — completed on October 2, and every node on the network is now watching the Zcash chain. The ZEC pool is live, with native trading set as the next activation step. For DeFi users, this is notable because THORChain does not use wrapped assets or custodial bridges: you swap actual coins across blockchains, with THORChain’s RUNE token serving as the settlement asset in every pool.
The Hook: Privacy Coins Get a Permissionless Door
Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency — think of it as a bank account where you can choose to hide your transaction history. Privacy coins have been systematically delisted from major centralized exchanges in recent years over compliance concerns, leaving holders with shrinking options to trade. A permissionless pool means no exchange can delist ZEC’s trading ability. As THORChain put it in its announcement, Zcash “now has a truly permissionless venue.” The protocol also gave a blunt warning: “Liquidity is shallow for now and will grow over time, so trade with caution in the early days.”
The Evidence: Months of Engineering Behind One Pool
- March upgrade — protocol version 3.16.0 added Zcash-specific transaction handling and RPC logic, plus a ZEC price feed inside the protocol’s own oracle
- Fee fix — a March GitLab change corrected ZEC network-fee reporting after the full ZIP-317 fee was mistakenly treated like a per-byte rate in solvency calculations
- September signing fix — nodes had produced different signing digests because ZEC transaction expiry was calculated from different local chain tips; the fix tied expiry to an agreed Zcash block height
- Node monitoring — after the October 2 churn, THORChain’s explorer lists ZEC as “OK” alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum and other supported chains
The Core Conflict: Freedom Versus the Laundry Next Door
The launch lands in the middle of an uncomfortable debate. THORChain is under scrutiny because wallets linked to the Bitget hack — which Bitget now values at roughly 387.5 million USD in unauthorized transfers — have used THORChain to launder funds. One attacker-linked wallet completed 27 swaps converting around 2,390 ETH into 75.2 BTC, worth about 6.3 million USD, through the protocol. Bitget asked THORChain to block the attacker’s addresses. THORChain refused, explaining that its emergency halt mechanisms can pause a whole chain or the entire protocol when solvency is at risk, but cannot selectively freeze an individual address or swap. That same design is exactly what makes the new ZEC pool “unstoppable” — and exactly what makes investigators uneasy.
This is not the first time. After the February 2025 Bybit hack, which the FBI attributed to North Korea, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said roughly 72% of about 900 million USD in converted stolen assets had passed through THORChain — and on-chain analyst Yu Jin calculated the protocol handled 2.91 billion USD in volume and about 3 million USD in fee income during the early laundering period. The protocol’s answer has been consistent: censorship resistance is the product.
Market Implications: What It Means for Liquidity
For ZEC holders, more venues usually means more liquidity and tighter pricing over time — ZEC traded near 1,400 USD this week after the community approved 8.39 million USD in retroactive grants. For RUNE holders, every new chain expands the network’s addressable trading volume, and pool depth grows as liquidity providers deposit assets to earn fees. But the early days carry real risk: THORChain itself flagged shallow liquidity, which means large swaps could face painful slippage — like trying to pour a swimming pool through a garden hose.
The Verdict: What This Means for You
If you hold ZEC, this is a long-term positive: a trading route that cannot be delisted. If you are tempted to be an early liquidity provider, size your positions carefully — shallow pools mean both bigger fee earnings and bigger risk if something breaks. And if you trade on THORChain in general, understand what you are using: a system built so that no one, not even the operators, can stop a transaction. That is either its greatest feature or its greatest flaw, depending on which side of a hack you are standing on.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
native ZEC swaps with no wrapped asset finally. been waiting years for something like this
Curious how the privacy angle survives once volumes pick up. Regulators have not exactly been friendly to ZEC listings lately.
the pressure lands on fiat offramps, not on swaps settled in rune between two chains. zec is already delisted almost everywhere, not much left to delist
regulators already squeezed zec off most cexes. a thorchain pool is exactly the venue they cant delist, thats the quiet point here
exactly, the offramp squeeze already happened. zec survived getting kicked off most cexes, a rune-settled pool is untouchable by that same playbook
the delisting cascade last year looked fatal and instead zec ended up with better rails than half the top 20. survival is a strategy i guess
the delist playbook hitting a dead end is the real story. thorchain cant get a listing revoked, regulators actually have to engage with the tech now
every node watching the Zcash chain after that churn is the detail here. thats real infra commitment from RUNE holders
no wrapped zec, no custodial bridge, just native swaps settled in rune. the thorchurn actually delivered something useful this time
every node watching the zcash chain natively is the underrated part here. if pool depth is decent this changes zec liquidity for good
pool depth is the whole question yeah. if the zec rune pool can absorb a six figure sell without slippage horror this actually matters, otherwise its a nice demo
thorchains pools are always thin right after launch, depth builds as the churn settles. give the zec pool two weeks before calling it a demo
two weeks is generous, the dash pool on thorchain took maybe a month before it could eat size without slippage spikes. but native zec with no wrapped version is worth the wait either way
dash took a month and the zec privacy crowd is patient by definition lol. depth comes once the arb bots finish seeding
early depth checks look decent actually, spread tightened within hours of the churn settling. the real test is the first six figure market sell, agreed on that
spread tightening within hours is the churn doing its job. the real tell is whether zec pool depth sticks above the dash baseline after the first wave of arb bots finishes seeding
Watching the dash comparison too. Arb bots seed fast then leave, so if zec depth is still above the dash baseline a week after the churn completed that is the moment I add liquidity, not day one hype
watching the dash baseline too, but the deeper signal is spreads tightening within hours with zero wrapped zec in circulation. no fake float anywhere in that pool
First permissionless trading venue in Zcash’s entire history and price barely moves. Privacy coins are criminally undervalued.
ZEC chart flat on the first permissionless venue in its history tells you everything about where we are in the cycle. Nobody prices infrastructure anymore, only narratives.
native zec pool vs wrapped zec on cexes, the arb on that spread alone should seed depth fast. someone is already running that trade today
first permissionless zec venue in its entire history and the chart is flat. same crowd complaining privacy is dead refuses to buy when it actually ships
first permissionless zec venue in its entire history and the chart is dead flat. meanwhile every memecoin listing does 40 percent on nothing. market prices vibes, not infrastructure
a rune settled zec pair existing at all is the headline. no wrapped copy means no fake float, every unit in that pool had to arrive through an actual shielded withdrawal
every zec in that pool arrived thru a real shielded withdrawal. an honesty test most cex order books would fail spectacularly
a churn adding zec with zero wrapped versions floating around is the deepest irony for a chain regulators keep probing. shielded in, rune settled out
first permissionless zec venue in its history and price barely moves. privacy shipping is the most thanked and least bought event in crypto, every time