Horizen 

ZEN Price

What is the Horizen (ZEN) coin?

Horizen is a zero-knowledge blockchain ecosystem focused on privacy-preserving Web3 applications. Launched in 2017 as ZenCash, a fork of Zcash and Zclassic, the project rebranded to Horizen in 2018. On July 23, 2025, ZEN migrated to Base as an ERC-20 token, and the Horizen 2.0 mainnet launched as an EVM-native, privacy-focused Layer 3 on Base on December 9, 2025. ZEN serves as the governance and utility token for zkApps, privacy services, and ZENDEX, a privacy-first decentralized exchange with hidden order books.

Is Horizen still a privacy coin?

Horizen positions itself as compliance-aware privacy infrastructure rather than a classic privacy coin. The Horizen 2.0 architecture delivers confidential compute through zero-knowledge proofs and trusted execution environments (TEEs), targeting developers building privacy-preserving dApps. The project made this repositioning explicitly amid industry-wide privacy-coin delistings. DropsTab classifies ZEN under Privacy Coin, with additional Zero Knowledge and Nodes categories.

Why did Horizen migrate ZEN to Base?

The migration moved ZEN off an independent proof-of-work chain and onto Base's infrastructure. On July 23, 2025, ZEN converted to an ERC-20 token on Base at a 1:1 ratio. The legacy Horizen mainchain and the EON sidechain were decommissioned after the migration. The Horizen 2.0 mainnet then launched on December 9, 2025 as an EVM-native Layer 3. Unclaimed legacy-mainchain ZEN remains claimable through the official migration portal with no deadline.

What is ZEN's maximum supply?

ZEN has a fixed maximum supply of 21,000,000 tokens — a Bitcoin-like hard cap that the 2025 Base migration explicitly preserved. Per DropsTab data, total supply equals the 21,000,000 cap. Under the Horizen 2.0 model, the old proof-of-work distribution (60% miners, 10% super nodes) was replaced, and emissions follow a smoothly declining schedule instead of abrupt four-year halvings.

How does the Horizen 2.0 emission model distribute new ZEN?

ZenIP 42407 allocates new ZEN emissions 40% to collators and delegators, 32.5% to the Horizen Foundation, and 27.5% to the DAO Treasury. Collator rewards split 85% to delegators and 15% retained by the collator. The combined Foundation and DAO share concentrates 60% of new emissions under insider-controlled allocation — a concentration risk flagged in the proposal itself. A minority of the 21M cap remained unemitted at the migration, with roughly 5M ZEN reserved for future emissions.

What does the ZEN vesting schedule mean for investors?

Under ZenIP 42407, Foundation and DAO Treasury tokens vest instead of emitting per block. 25% unlocked at the July 23, 2025 migration, and the remaining 75% unlocks linearly in monthly installments over 48 months — a schedule running to roughly mid-2029. These monthly Foundation and DAO unlocks create recurring sell-pressure risk through the vesting window, though the hard 21,000,000 cap bounds total dilution.

Who backed Horizen?

ZEN had no token sale or ICO — ZenCash launched in 2017 through mining with a treasury model. Funding flowed through Horizen Labs, the affiliated development company: a $4M seed round in April 2019 with Digital Currency Group and Liberty City Ventures, and a $7M round in August 2021 led by Kenetic Capital with Deribit and Artist Capital Management participating — approximately $11M total. Grayscale, a Digital Currency Group subsidiary, bought $6.3M of ZEN and launched the Grayscale Zen Investment Trust in September 2018.

Where can you buy ZEN crypto?

ZEN trades across centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges, and derivatives venues. Per DropsTab data, ZEN is tracked on 20+ spot venues, including Binance (ZEN/USDT, ZEN/USDC), OKX (ZEN/USDT, ZEN/USD, ZEN/EUR), Coinbase (ZEN/USD), Bybit, KuCoin, and Bitget. Perpetual futures trade on Binance Futures, OKX, KuCoin Futures, Kraken Futures, and Hyperliquid. On Base, Aerodrome dominates on-chain liquidity with ZEN/WETH, ZEN/USDC, and ZEN/cbBTC pools, alongside Uniswap V3.

Did Horizen run an airdrop or rewards campaign for ZEN?

Horizen launched Zenrise, a loyalty and points program, on February 10, 2026 — users complete onboarding, social, community, and on-chain quests to earn Zenrise XP redeemable for ZEN rewards. Zenrise Season 1's ZEN claim portal closed on April 30, 2026, with roughly 85% of Season 1 rewards claimed by mid-April. The program's terms reserve the right to discontinue XP distribution. Earlier, the July 2025 Base migration served holders directly: EON balances migrated automatically 1:1.