Zcash holders will vote to remove 50,000 ZEC from the community fund, valued at approximately 50 million USD

Zcash holders and community representatives will vote from November 16 to 30 on a proposal to remove 50,000 ZEC from the community grant fund (ZCG). This proposal was co-drafted by Zcash co-founders Sean Bowe, Zooko Wilcox, and Jason McGee, and was merged into the specification repository on Wednesday. According to the October treasury snapshot referenced in the proposal, ZCG holds 91,453 ZEC, and the amount proposed for removal accounts for approximately 55% of its holdings.

If the proposal passes and is activated in the network upgrade, ZCG must remove the 50,000 ZEC from circulation within 30 days, and its corresponding value will be included in the Network Sustainability Mechanism, gradually returned through future block rewards. Additionally, the proposal plans to stop allocating 8% of newly issued ZEC to ZCG, transferring this portion of funds into a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund, which will continue to accumulate until the next Zcash halving. Funds in this new fund will temporarily be unavailable for expenditure until separate withdrawal rules are approved.

ZCG can still use the remaining treasury funds to continue issuing development grants, and the independent 12% holder-controlled fund will not be affected. The proposal states that based on the October treasury snapshot, a ZEC price of $1,300, and expenditure estimates for the first half of 2026, the current funds of ZCG can cover approximately 13 years of expenditures; after the removal of 50,000 ZEC, the remaining funds are expected to cover about 6 years. Previously, ZCG proposed to redirect approximately 98,000 ZEC from existing assets and future income to miner rewards, but abandoned this plan on November 3 after facing community criticism. This new proposal still requires community support and must be implemented through a network upgrade. The activation block height has not yet been determined, nor has a reference implementation been provided.