PAXG to ZEC: Swap PAX Gold to Zcash Without KYC

PAX Gold is an ERC-20 token issued by Paxos, and each token represents one fine troy ounce of gold held in custody. It lives on Ethereum, which means every PAXG transfer, balance and address is public on Etherscan for anyone to read.

Zcash is a separate blockchain with its own coin. ZEC can sit at a transparent address, which works much like Bitcoin, or inside the shielded pool, where zero-knowledge proofs hide the sender, the receiver and the amount. That optional privacy is the main reason people pick this direction: value that was visible as gold on Ethereum ends up as a coin they can hold privately.

Be clear about the trade. You give up a token tied to gold for one whose price moves on its own and usually far more sharply. The swap pays native ZEC directly, with no bridge and no wrapped token in between.

The deposit is a plain ERC-20 transfer of PAXG on Ethereum mainnet. You do not approve a contract or sign anything beyond the transfer itself. MetaMask, Rabby and a Ledger all handle it the same way.

Gas is paid in ETH, not in PAXG. A wallet holding only PAX Gold cannot send it, so leave some ETH in the same address. Gas changes with network load, and the guide to lower gas fees covers when to send.

Look at the network name before you approve the send. Your wallet may also show balances on layer-2 networks at the same 0x address, and only mainnet PAXG reaches this deposit. Ethereum confirms the transfer in about 2 to 5 minutes, and you can follow it on Etherscan. Paxos, as the issuer, can freeze PAXG at an address; that is a feature of the token and applies to the PAXG before the swap.

ZEC from this swap goes to a transparent Zcash address, which starts with t1 or t3. Unified addresses that start with u1 and shielded addresses that start with zs cannot receive the payout, so paste neither into the box.

Modern Zcash wallets lead with a unified address, so the transparent one can take a moment to find. In Zodl (formerly Zashi), Zkool or Zingo, open Receive and switch to the transparent address. Copy it and paste it; do not retype a Zcash address by hand.

Zcash confirms the payout in about 10 to 20 minutes, which is slower than the Ethereum side. The transaction shows at your t-address on Blockchair while it confirms. Your wallet may list it as pending until enough blocks have passed. A brand-new wallet is fine as the destination; it does not need any ZEC before the payout lands.

A payout to a t-address is public, like any transparent Zcash transaction. The privacy comes from the next step, which you do yourself in the wallet: moving the balance from the transparent address into the shielded pool.

Zodl, Zkool and Zingo all offer this as a shield action. Wait until the payout has confirmed, then shield the full balance. The shielding transaction pays a small ZEC network fee. From then on, transfers between shielded addresses hide the sender, the receiver and the amount.

Some habits keep the benefit intact. Shield the whole amount rather than part of it, and avoid sending the same round figure straight back out to a transparent address soon after. Spending from the shielded pool to another shielded address keeps the trail hidden. For background on how this compares with other coins, see what privacy coins are or the Zcash and Monero comparison.

No wallet covers both rows here. You need an Ethereum wallet to send the PAXG and a Zcash wallet to receive and shield the ZEC. Set up the Zcash side first and copy its transparent address, so it is ready before you open the swap box and send anything.

The box turns the PAXG amount you enter into the ZEC you get after fees, priced from aggregated liquidity from leading crypto markets. The pair's minimum and maximum appear there as well. The rate floats with the market until your PAXG deposit confirms on Ethereum; after that, most swaps finish within minutes, and the payout then needs Zcash confirmations.

You never register, and nobody asks for an email address or an ID. GhostSwap is a no-KYC crypto exchange, and the swap is two addresses and one PAXG transfer.

If a swap cannot be completed, the coins are refunded to the sender address you entered. That should be an Ethereum address in your own wallet, not an exchange withdrawal address. Each swap has a status page under its swap ID; if Etherscan shows the PAXG confirmed and the page stops moving, email support@ghostswap.io with the swap ID and transaction hash. To go back, use ZEC to PAXG.