How and Where to Buy Horizen (ZEN) – Detailed Guide
- What is ZEN?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
- Step 5: Trade ZEN
- Last Step: Store ZEN securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading ZEN
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for ZEN
- ZEN Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is ZEN?
What Is Horizen (ZEN)?
Horizen is a zero-knowledge-enabled network of blockchains powered by the largest node infrastructure in the industry. Blockchain interoperability is enabled by the Zendoo protocol, which uses SNARK-verification and allows for complete flexibility in sidechain type, consensus, speed, and privacy. Cryptographic verification of networked chains offers massive scale, and the network currently supports up to 10,000 sidechains with a throughput limit of 10,000,000 TPS.
Zendoo makes Horizen a permissionless network of blockchains. Developers can deploy their blockchains within the ecosystem using a variety of SDKs. The first set of SDKs, Blaze and Latus, deploy blockchains based on IOHK's provably secure Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol. Blaze offers high-speed chains that declare their own certifiers and can run up to 1,000 TPS, while Latus uses a recursive SNARK composition for full decentralization. The next set of SDKs will include EVM integration for Ethereum smart contract compatibility.
Horizen's native cryptocurrency, ZEN, is a mineable PoW coin currently trading on major exchanges, including Coinbase, Bittrex, and Binance. ZEN can be staked to participate in Horizen's nearly 50,000 full node network.
Who Are the Founders of Horizen?
The founders of Horizen are Rob Viglione and Rolf Versluis.
Dr. Rob Viglione is the co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs and the co-founder and team lead of the Zen Blockchain Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance, an MBA in Finance and Marketing, and a Bachelor's in Physics & Applied Mathematics. Additionally, Rob has been an advisor to some of the most transformational blockchain projects globally, including Aave, and he previously worked as a scientist in the space industry.
Rolf Versluis is the co-founder and executive advisor of the Zen Blockchain Foundation. He is an experienced business owner in the IT industry and owns a mid-size mining operation. In the past, Rolf worked at Cisco Systems, the semiconductor industry, and as a nuclear-trained officer in the US Submarine force.
Jane Lippencott was a member of the founding team and co-author of the original whitepaper. She is now a partner at a16z Crypto, the digital asset unit of venture investing giant Andreessen Horowitz, and was previously an associate at Winklevoss Capital. Jane is a 2021 VC Cohort at All Rise, an advisor at Teller Finance, and a mentor at the Open Web Collective, as well as a mentor at Celo and Katapult Accelerator. She is a contributor at Nakamoto.com. She worked as a mentor at Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC), a mentor at dLab and a mentor at Ethereum Classic Labs, an advisor at Unbounded Capital, a mentor at Techstars, and was a member of the Board at Cord.
What Makes Horizen Unique?
Horizen is known for its expertise in zero-knowledge-based blockchain technology. Their team has made several advancements in the cryptography space, including their zero-knowledge privacy tool library, called Ginger-Lib, and for the release of one of the first zero-knowledge-based scalability solutions.
Their blockchain network provides a unique sidechain solution that allows developers to build their own scalable blockchains with the ability to support tens of thousands of transactions per second while maintaining true decentralization across tens of thousands of nodes. Horizen also offers unique optional privacy features.
Horizen is a fully decentralized zero-knowledge-enabled blockchain ecosystem that offers massive scalability and optional privacy features. Horizen features Zendoo, a sidechain system that enables the deployment of thousands of independent sidechains that communicate with the mainchain and each other.
Blockchain transactions are verified by network nodes, which requires significant computational power. This is why most blockchain networks have a cap on the number of transactions they can process at any given time. However, developers on Horizen can operate more than 10,000 independent blockchains simultaneously while handling up to 10 million transactions per second across all sidechains (an average TPS of 1,000 per chain). This is largely due to Horizen’s node network being one of the largest and most distributed networks in the industry. This enables their network to be fully decentralized while maintaining high throughput for transactions across the network.
Horizen is decentralized on the technical level and is moving towards being fully decentralized on the governance level with initiatives like Zen Improvement Proposals and the Horizen Community Council. Horizen uses the ZenIP process to standardize the process of suggesting major changes to the Horizen code base and ecosystem.
ZEN is the native cryptocurrency for the Horizen ecosystem.
Related Pages:
What Can Zero-Knowledge Technology Do for Scalability? at CMC Alexandria.
Make sure to find our latest posts at the CoinMarketCap blog.
How Many Horizen (ZEN) Coins Are There in Circulation?
Horizen has a maximum supply of 21,000,000 coins, of which just over 11,700,000 are in circulation as of November 2021.
Horizen has one of the largest node networks with a multi-tiered node system. The operators receive 20% of the total block subsidy, and the dispersed node network provides an extensive infrastructure to operate an ecosystem of both applications and sidechains.
When it comes to mining ZEN, it is an ASIC-mineable cryptocurrency that employs the Equihash algorithm. Block rewards 60% miners, 20% treasury, and 20% nodes.
How Is the Horizen Network Secured?
Horizen utilizes a combination of Proof-of-Work in their mainchain and Proof-of-Stake in their sidechains. Each PoS sidechain built on the Horizen network is pegged to the mainchain and runs simultaneously. The mainchain acts as a ‘truth engine’ for all blockchains built on the network.
Horizen uses zk-SNARKs to allow the communication between sidechains and the mainchain without having the mainchain know the sidechain logic and the internal structure. This approach keeps the mainchain completely decoupled from the sidechain’s logic and allows the whole system to scale possible applications and global transaction throughput. On the other hand, the usage of zk-SNARKs within the sidechains enables developers to build applications that preserve the users’ privacy, allowing the development of a wide variety of real-world use cases to be built on their network.
The Horizen blockchain network uses secure nodes which are TLS encrypted to enable secure inter-node communication. ZEN uses the Equihash consensus algorithm, which supports ASIC mining and offers shielded transactions that can mask the sender, recipient, and value transacted.
Where Can You Buy Horizen (ZEN)?
Horizen (ZEN) can be purchased, sold and traded at major cryptocurrency exchanges such as:
Coinbase
Bittrex
Binance
Binance.US
Huobi Global
HitBTC
DigiFinex
KuCoin
MEXC
OKEx
You can find others listed at the CMC crypto exchanges page. Interested in learning how to buy your first cryptocurrency? Read more.
ZEN was first tradable on 1st Jun, 2017. It has a total supply of 14,681,893.75. As of right now ZEN has a market capitalization of USD $233,054,541.28. The current price of ZEN is $11.10 and is ranked 289 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 30.24 percent at the time of writing.
ZEN has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy ZEN.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:
- Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
- Currently more than 7M users worldwide
- You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
- Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
- No hidden fees and any other account fees
- There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
- You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
- USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.
Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
Select altcoin exchanges:
- Gate.io
- BitMart
- Binance
But we are not done yet, since ZEN is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ZEN can be traded, here we will use Gate.io as our exchange. Gate.io is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Gate.io and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Gate.io!
Now go back to Gate.io and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Gate.io once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ZEN!
Step 5: Trade ZEN
Go back to Gate.io, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ZEN", you should see ZEN/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ZEN/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ZEN", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ZEN". Voila! You have finally bought ZEN!
But we are not done yet, since ZEN is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ZEN can be traded, here we will use BitMart as our exchange. BitMart is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
BitMart is a crypto exchange from the Cayman Islands. It became available to the public in March 2018. BitMart has a truly impressive liquidity. At the time of the last update of this review (20 March 2020, right in the middle of the crisis with COVID-19), BitMart’s 24 hour trading volume was USD 1.8 billion. This amount placed BitMart on place no. 24 on Coinmarketcap’s the list of exchanges with the highest 24 hour trading volumes. Needless to say, if you start trading here, you will not have to worry about the order book being thin. Many exchanges does not allow investors from USA as customers. As far as we can tell, BitMart is not one of those exchanges. Any US-investors interested in trading here should in any event form their own opinion on any issues arising from their citizenship or residency.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at BitMart and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to BitMart!
Now go back to BitMart and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from BitMart once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ZEN!
Step 5: Trade ZEN
Go back to BitMart, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ZEN", you should see ZEN/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ZEN/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ZEN", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ZEN". Voila! You have finally bought ZEN!
But we are not done yet, since ZEN is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ZEN can be traded, here we will use Binance as our exchange. Binance is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Binance is a popular cryptocurrency exchange which was started in China but then moved their headquarters to the crypto-friendly Island of Malta in the EU. Binance is popular for its crypto to crypto exchange services. Binance exploded onto the scene in the mania of 2017 and has since gone on to become the top crypto exchange in the world. Unfortunately, Binance does not allow US investors so we recommend you to sign up on other exchanges we recommend on this page.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Binance and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Binance!
Now go back to Binance and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Binance once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ZEN!
Step 5: Trade ZEN
Go back to Binance, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ZEN", you should see ZEN/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ZEN/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ZEN", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ZEN". Voila! You have finally bought ZEN!
Last Step: Store ZEN securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used on desktops and laptops
- Lightweight and Portable
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Ledger Nano X
- More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
- Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Larger screen
- More storage space than Ledger Nano S
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your ZEN for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy ZEN with cash?
There is no direct way to buy ZEN with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy ZEN in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy ZEN or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.