NEAR is the go-to Layer for Zcash Transfers

Moving Zcash between chains used to mean creating a centralized exchange account, completing verification steps, and waiting up to 30 minutes for a transfer to settle. That process is now largely obsolete.

@NEARProtocol's NEAR Intents product transfers native $ZEC across more than 30 chains, including @Ethereum and @Solana, in a matter of seconds and for less than a cent in fees. Users do not need to manually bridge assets or interact with destination-chain contracts. The system handles the complexity under the hood.

How NEAR Intents Works

NEAR Intents uses an intent-driven architecture where competing solvers bid to fulfill user requests. These solvers handle the actual cross-chain execution, finding the most efficient path for atomic swaps, payments, and bridging actions. The user does not need to know which chain is doing what under the hood. The update leverages NEAR's intent-based infrastructure to facilitate multi-token-to-ZEC conversions, streamlining the user experience for accessing privacy-focused digital assets across blockchains.

By integrating Zcash into a broader swap ecosystem, NEAR Intents enables users who wish to consolidate multiple token holdings into a single privacy-enhanced asset to do so without needing to switch between multiple protocols or cross-chain bridges. The integration allows shielded ZEC from the Orchard pool to be transferred to a T-address managed by NEAR smart contracts, preserving privacy while facilitating efficient asset exchanges. ZEC holders can swap for cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, and NEAR while maintaining financial confidentiality through Zcash's Zero-Knowledge Proofs.

Adoption Is Growing Fast

According to @NEARProtocol, users have transferred over $2.4 billion in ZEC through NEAR Intents, a figure that reflects rapid uptake of the protocol for Zcash liquidity. The broader NEAR Intents platform has also posted remarkable overall growth. NEAR Intents has surpassed $30 billion in cumulative all-time volume, reaching approximately $31.4 billion according to data tracked on Dune Analytics. NEAR Intents hit $5 billion in transaction volume in November 2025. By January 2026, it had doubled to $10 billion. Barely five months later, it had doubled again.

NEAR Intents was reportedly the fastest-growing cross-chain protocol in 2025, and its trajectory in 2026 reinforces that position. For Zcash specifically, the protocol has emerged as the primary infrastructure layer for moving $ZEC natively across chains, without the privacy trade-offs that wrapped tokens typically introduce.

Sources: The Defiant: NEAR Intents Expands Crosschain Swaps to Support 100+ Tokens Into Zcash Crypto Briefing: NEAR Protocol Intents Surpass $30B in All-Time Volume Yahoo Finance: NEAR Intents Achieves $10B in Swap Volume