Zcash: Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
Digital cash is meant to be simple to use, secure, and private by default, and yet Zcash wallets have been plagued with bad UX, privacy gotchas, and incomplete features from day one. With Zcash in Cake Wallet, all of that changes; from auto-shielding without a tap, automatically rotating transparent and shielded addresses, and a broad suite of features, we’re doing our part to make Zcash all it has promised since 2016.
Users get the full modern Zcash experience, shielded-by-default transactions, in-app swaps, AnyPay support, and real-world spending through Cake Pay, all wrapped in a polished interface that has been refined since 2018 through open-source development and real-world use. That combination of deep Zcash integration, thoughtful privacy defaults, and proven longevity is what makes Cake Wallet the most advanced Zcash wallet available today.
Join us as we take a look at each of these features, revealing how you can go from crypto noob to a privacy-demanding Zcash power-user.
Autoshielding (Private by Default)
With Zcash on Cake Wallet, autoshielding is enabled by default, ensuring funds are immediately moved into shielded addresses without requiring manual steps. This removes friction and guesswork for users while reinforcing a simple principle: privacy should not depend on advanced settings or perfect behavior. By making shielded usage the standard path, Cake Wallet helps users stay protected automatically as they receive and manage ZEC.
Always Private, No Questions Asked
Cake Wallet does not allow outgoing transactions from transparent (T-) addresses. Every spend originates from a shielded address, ensuring transaction privacy is preserved even when sending funds to transparent recipients. This design choice prevents accidental privacy leaks and reflects a deliberate commitment to implementing Zcash the way it should always be used, securely and privately by default.
One Seed to Rule Them All
Cake Wallet’s single recovery seed can manage multiple wallets and multiple coins, including Zcash. This “one seed” approach reflects how people actually use crypto today, holding and using different assets for different purposes. By combining multi-coin support with a unified seed, Cake Wallet reduces complexity while maintaining strong self-custody, making it easier for users to manage private digital cash without juggling multiple backups. You can truly “be your own bank”.
Background sync
Ever gotten tired of waiting for your Zcash wallet to sync so you can make that payment? On Android, we let you enable background sync with a tap, ensuring that all of your wallets are always up to date and ready to go when you need them.
Yes, it's really that simple.
AnyPay Integration
With AnyPay, also known as Pay Anything, Cake Wallet removes one of the most common friction points in crypto payments, when a buyer and seller have mismatched currencies. If you have Zcash but need to pay an address in another supported asset, like Bitcoin, or Monero, you simply paste the address and hit send. Cake Wallet automatically handles the swap in the background and completes the payment in a single, seamless flow. No wallet switching, no manual swapping, and no awkward back-and-forth about which coin someone accepts. It’s crypto working the way people intuitively expect it to, simple, direct, and private by default, even when paying across different currencies.
Shielded Swaps
We’ve brought our incredible swaps to Zcash, including shielded swaps using NEAR, allowing users to move between assets in just a few taps while preserving privacy. This expands Zcash’s utility beyond simple transfers and into real financial workflows. Additional swap providers with full shielded support, including Exolix, are coming soon, further improving liquidity, choice, and flexibility for users without compromising on privacy.
Passphrase wallets
Worried that someone will discover your seed phrase at home and swipe all your hard-earned Zcash? We've added passphrase support for Zcash, meaning you can finally add an extra layer of security to your wallets.
When creating or a restoring a wallet, just check the box and enter your passphrase and you're off to the races.
Cake Pay
Private money only works if it can be spent. Through Cake Pay, users can turn ZEC into gift cards and debit cards for everyday goods and services directly from Cake Wallet. This bridges private digital payments with real-world utility, making Zcash more than just a store of value, it becomes usable money without routing users back through traditional, surveillance-heavy payment systems.
Rotating Transparent Addresses
For situations where transparent addresses are required, such as certain swap flows, Cake Wallet uses rotating t-addresses. This minimizes address reuse and reduces the risk of transaction graph linking, which is especially important during swaps. Combined with shielded-by-default spending, this approach ensures that even edge cases are handled with privacy in mind. Famed blockchain investigator ZachXBT recently shed some light on the kinds of risks users are exposed to when making swaps with Zcash and re-used t-addresses. Cake protects users from these kinds of privacy lapses.
Important - As Zashi has implemented a different approach to change addresses than Cake Wallet and other more established Zcash wallets, restoring a Zashi seed phrase in Cake Wallet will not show all funds available. If you're migrating to Cake Wallet from Zashi, create a new Zcash wallet in Cake, and send your ZEC funds over to your new Zcash wallet in Cake from Zashi.
Click here for a step by step migration guide.
Conclusion
Together, these design choices reflect a single philosophy – that Zcash should be private, usable, and hard to misuse. Cake Wallet’s integration doesn’t just support Zcash, it implements it carefully, intentionally, and with long-term user protection at the center. For those die-hard Monero users who are looking for a Monero-only experience, we also have Monero.com.
What truly sets Cake Wallet apart is its maturity and independence. As a multi-coin, blockchain-agnostic wallet with a single seed managing multiple assets, Cake Wallet fits naturally into how people actually use crypto, without locking them into one network or ecosystem. It isn’t an experimental side project or a single-chain app, it’s a long-standing privacy wallet with over a million downloads, industry-leading privacy by design, continuous innovation, and a clear long-term roadmap.