Zcash (ZEC) perpetual market

Zcash is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency launched in 2016, based on Bitcoin's design but adding strong optional anonymity through advanced cryptography. It pioneered the practical use of zero-knowledge proofs, specifically zk-SNARKs, which let a transaction be verified as valid without revealing the sender, receiver or amount. Zcash offers both transparent addresses that behave like Bitcoin and shielded addresses that keep details private, so users choose how much to disclose. It keeps Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap and proof-of-work model. The project was launched by the Electric Coin Company and grew out of academic research, and the zero-knowledge techniques it helped popularize have since spread far beyond privacy coins into Ethereum scaling and identity systems. Zcash sits alongside Monero as a flagship privacy asset, with a different trade-off of selective, cryptographically rigorous privacy rather than privacy that is always on.