How to Swap Solana (SOL) to Zcash (ZEC) on SwapToZec
If you hold Solana and want Zcash, the shielded pool is probably why: the amount and the receiving address stay off the public ledger. This guide is the exact sequence on SwapToZec, plus the three places people get it wrong: the Zcash address format, the deposit amount, and what they send.
No account, no ID check. Every swap has a link that shows its status without logging in; without an account, that link is the only way back to it.
Before you start: two things to have ready
A Zcash wallet with a unified address. Zcash has three address kinds, and you will meet two of them. Transparent addresses start with t1 or t3 and behave like Bitcoin addresses: anyone can look up what they hold. Unified addresses start with u1 and tell the sender to pay into the shielded pool. If privacy is the reason you are swapping, give a u1… address. See receiving your first ZEC for wallet setup and unified addresses explained for the detail.
An exchange deposit address is almost always a t1…. It works, but your ZEC arrives in public, which defeats the point.
The widget accepts t1…, t3… and u1…. It does not accept the third kind, legacy zs1… shielded addresses — if your wallet only shows one of those, update it or switch wallets.
Native SOL in a wallet you control. You are sending SOL itself on the Solana network — not an SPL token, not staked SOL, not wrapped SOL on another chain. Phantom, Solflare, Backpack or a hardware wallet are all fine. Avoid withdrawing straight from an exchange: exchanges often subtract their withdrawal fee from the amount you typed, which breaks the exact-amount match in step 4. Withdraw to your own wallet first, then send from there.
Step by step: SOL to ZEC on SwapToZec
Five steps. The first three happen in the widget, the fourth in your Solana wallet, the fifth on the status page.
1. Open the SOL to ZEC page and enter an amount
Go to swaptozec.com/swap/sol-to-zec. The widget opens with SOL as what you send and ZEC as what you receive. Type the amount in SOL, or press Enter in USD and type dollars instead.
The quote shows the SOL/ZEC rate, the network fee, the swap fee, the ZEC you will receive, and a countdown. The quote holds for 60 minutes; take longer and the widget fetches a fresh one on its own.
What it costs, in the quote and nowhere else:
- Swap fee: 0.5% of the amount. Send 1 SOL and 0.005 SOL of it is the fee.
- Network fee: a charge for the Zcash payout transaction, about five cents' worth of ZEC at the time of writing.
The "minimum received" line in the quote is the same figure as the ZEC amount shown; that is what arrives, with nothing deducted afterwards. The minimum swap is $100 worth of SOL — below that the quote says so and the button stays disabled. The site sets no upper limit.
2. Continue through the route and give your Zcash address
Press Continue. The route step shows the one available route already selected; press Continue again.
Paste your Zcash address. The widget checks the format when you leave the field and again when you press Continue. Below it, + Add refund address opens an optional field for a Solana address of yours. It costs ten seconds and matters in one situation, covered below: if your deposit has to come back, this is where it goes.
3. Review and confirm
The review screen lists what you send, what you receive, the rate, both fees and your destination address. Check the address once more; nobody can recall a ZEC payout.
Press Confirm swap. Your swap now has a link — bookmark it.
4. Send exactly the amount shown
The status page shows a deposit address, a QR code and an amount such as 0.83417 SOL. Send that figure. Not a rounded version, not "a bit extra".
Send the figure exactly as shown, down to the last decimal place: 0.83417 is what the quote asks for; 0.834 is not the same amount. A different figure lands in Review required and takes longer, because it has to be checked by hand before the swap can proceed.
Scanning the QR code with a Solana wallet fills in both the address and the amount. If your wallet fills in only the address, paste the full figure and check the last digits before you send.
5. Wait for confirmation, then check your Zcash wallet
Solana confirms in seconds. Then the part that takes time: your deposit is identified by its amount and verified on-chain before the swap proceeds, so the status page can sit on Waiting for deposit for a while after your wallet says the transfer went through. That is normal.
The status page then moves through Confirming on-chain, Confirmed, Processing, Payout sent (with the Zcash transaction id) and Completed. Zcash blocks arrive about every 75 seconds, so the ZEC becomes spendable a few minutes after the payout goes out.
If something goes wrong
You sent a different amount. The deposit lands in Review required and is either processed or returned — to your refund address if you gave one, otherwise after you write to support@swaptozec.com with your swap link and the transaction signature.
You sent something other than native SOL — an SPL token, or SOL on a different chain via a bridge. Nobody can match or recover that. It is the one mistake with no fix, which is why the native-SOL warning is at the top of this page.
You gave the wrong Zcash address. If you have not sent the SOL yet, cancel the swap from its status page and start over. If you already sent it, do not cancel — email support immediately with the swap link. Once the payout goes out, the ZEC belongs to whoever controls that address.
The quote expired. Nothing was lost — no swap exists until you press Confirm swap. Get a new quote.
Other routes
Zcash is the default destination on SwapToZec, not the only one: the same widget swaps SOL into Monero or any of 20 coins, and the reverse direction, ZEC to SOL, works too. The swap to ZEC page lists every route into Zcash. For how a swap runs behind the scenes see how it works; for what we store and what we do not, see trust.