Zcash’s Zashi Wallet Used for Private Swap, Surges NEAR Intent Activity

Activity on NEAR’s intent-based system has increased sharply in recent weeks, with transaction volume nearly doubling month-over-month and the number of users exceeding 120,000, according to Dune data.

Approximately $800 million in swaps and payments have flowed through NEAR Intents in the past 30 days, bringing the cumulative total to approximately $1.8 billion since the product was launched earlier this year.

This leap has to do with how intents change the user experience. Instead of manually bridging assets or checking multiple steps across the chain, users specify an outcome (for example, “exchange USDC on Ethereum to NEAR on Solana”) and the protocol handles the routing in the background.

The data shows that the scope of both assets and chains is growing. USDC, WETH, and new ecosystem tokens top the list based on volume, while Ethereum, Solana, and Zcash dominate on the blockchain side. The number of unique active users reached 113,000 in the past week, suggesting a more sustained flow rather than a temporary spike in incentives.

Orders are bundled and matched by intermediaries, reducing bottlenecks and compressing gas costs. This structure is starting to attract traders who want cross-chain execution without the hassle of juggling multiple wallets or waiting for bridges to clear.

It gives this wave an edge from a privacy perspective. Zashi, the mobile wallet released by Electric Coin Company for Zcash, has been running two live features on NEAR Intents since its release in early October.

Zashi Swaps allows users to convert BTC, SOL, USDC, and other supported assets to ZEC directly within the app and secure them there. CrossPay allows someone to spend shielded ZEC and receive funds in the cryptocurrency of their choice on a chain supported by NEAR.

This connection is important because Zcash has quadrupled in price in the last month and is back in the market conversation after years in the shadows. Additionally, Zashi’s on-ramps and off-ramps to NEAR Intents create a cleaner user experience for everyday participants and make private ZEC more practical.

The Zashi-Intents loop sets a template for other privacy wallets to imitate. In this loop, intents do the heavy lifting in the background while your user-facing application processes client user requests.