Private trading
Buying and selling from a wallet that has no history.
What happens when you trade privately
With Trade privately switched on, the SOL for your buy comes out of your shielded deposit and goes to a wallet created just for this trade. That wallet makes the buy and holds the tokens. It has never received anything from a wallet you've used before.
The wallet never needs its own SOL
Normally a brand-new wallet can't do anything until someone sends it SOL for network fees — and that transfer is exactly the trail that gives people away. On Ztonk, a relayer pays the network fee and any account costs instead. The trading wallet can hold nothing but the tokens it bought.
This works because every Ztonk trade separates three roles that are usually one wallet: who owns the tokens, who pays the fees, and who supplies the SOL. On a private trade they're three different parties.
| Role | On a private trade |
|---|---|
| Owns the tokens (signs the trade) | Your fresh wallet |
| Pays network fees | The relayer |
| Supplies the SOL | Your shielded deposit |
What the relayer can't do
Your fresh wallet still signs the trade itself, so the relayer can't change the amount, the token, or where the tokens go. All it does is pay the fee and submit. If it refuses, you can use another relayer.
How it looks to everyone else
In a token's trade list, private trades show as Private instead of an address. On a block explorer, they come from a wallet with no history before this trade and no link back to you.
Selling
Sell from the same fresh wallet whenever you like. The proceeds land in that wallet; to move them on without linking it to you, deposit them back into the shield. What stays private covers the habits that keep it that way.