zcash

Former Superstate engineering head Jon Walch tweeted that his new company Offworld Privacy will bring privacy cryptocurrencies like Zcash to private DeFi on Helius Privacy and Aztec Network. The first products include a trust-minimized shielded Zcash bridge and a private lending protocol.

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.

Zach Pandl, the head of research at Grayscale, pointed out that the number of monthly active developers for Zcash has roughly doubled over the past two years, while the broader cryptocurrency developer community has declined from its peak during the same period.About 70% of Zcash's active developers have over a year of experience in cryptocurrency development, which is higher than the overall industry average of 58%. These developers possess expertise in zero-knowledge proofs and post-quantum cryptography research. The article suggests that the continued engagement of developers indicates the network's capability for ongoing improvement. The growing developer community of Zcash combines a strong privacy ethos with the goal of making private digital currencies more accessible. This momentum is expected to continue supporting protocol innovation and may ultimately translate into an increase in ZEC valuation.

Grayscale announced the launch of the investor education platform Zcash Invest and placed a cover advertisement in the print edition of The Wall Street Journal to promote Zcash and its Zcash ETF (ZCSH). This promotional campaign will also cover channels such as outdoor advertising, streaming media, and social media.Grayscale plans to use all the initiation fees collected in the first year for ZCSH as an exchange-traded product (ETP) to support the development, promotion, and education of the Zcash network, and plans to provide $1 million in funding to relevant nonprofit organizations and projects.The first $400,000 has been granted to the Zcash Foundation, Pretty Good Policy for Zcash, Shielded Labs, and Project Tachyon, with each receiving $100,000.

Zcash community member ValarDragon posted on the official community forum, proposing a series of plans to be included in the NU8 network upgrade, and suggested setting the upgrade target for the end of January 2027. The main content includes the launch of the Tachyon shielded pool, expanding transaction formats, increasing the maximum block size from 2MB to 8MB, and adding support for post-quantum cryptography transparent transaction opcodes.Other proposals also include: adjusting the NSM redistribution date to be closer to the time of Zcash's seventh halving; determining a date at the protocol level for Sapling to stop accepting new deposits while continuing to support transactions and withdrawals; and eliminating the need to update the Consensus Branch ID with each network upgrade to reduce wallet compatibility issues. ValarDragon stated that with the combination of Tachyon and larger block capacity, a shielded transaction processing capability of approximately 200 TPS is expected. In addition, the post-quantum transparent transaction feature will introduce schemes based on SPHINCS with 128-bit and 192-bit security levels. The above content currently belongs to the upgrade ideas proposed by community members, and specific implementation still depends on development progress and subsequent NU8 discussions and voting.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time November 9), the total net outflow for the US HYPE and ZEC spot ETFs was $2.6337 million and $2.1708 million respectively, totaling a net outflow of $4.8045 million.For HYPE, the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP) had a net inflow of $0.8458 million for the day, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $115 million; the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP) had a net outflow of $3.4795 million for the day, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $23.9333 million. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of the HYPE spot ETFs was $356 million, with a net asset ratio of 1.98%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $285 million.For ZEC, the Zcash ETF (ZCSH) recorded a net outflow of $2.1708 million for the day, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $206 million. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of the ZEC spot ETFs was $674 million, with a net asset ratio of 3.39%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $206 million.

Zcash developers proposed to shorten the blockchain target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds to accelerate transaction confirmation speed. On Sunday, developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes submitted a draft of a Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) to the Zcash community forum, hoping that this change will be included in the next community vote and considered in the upcoming NU7.1 network upgrade.According to the proposal, shortening the block interval will reduce the expected waiting time for the first transaction confirmation, thereby improving the user experience for offline payments, exchange deposits, and cross-chain swaps. The developers stated that this change will not increase the overall processing capacity for daily privacy transactions on the network; at the same time, despite more frequent block generation, the proposal will maintain Zcash's existing issuance schedule.The proposal was made a few days after the NU7 upgrade went live. On Friday, the NU7 upgrade activated on the mainnet, shortening the network target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. This upgrade also introduced a network sustainability mechanism, using part of the transaction fees collected for future mining rewards while maintaining Zcash's supply cap of 21 million ZEC.

Zcash has completed Network Upgrade 7 (NU7), reducing the block target time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, with the single block reward adjusted to 0.52083333 ZEC to maintain the established daily issuance. The total supply cap of ZEC remains at 21 million coins, with the next halving expected at the end of 2028, occurring at block height 6,132,390.At the time of reporting, the price of ZEC rose from $1,225 to over $1,380 at one point, and then reported around $1,345, with a 24-hour increase of approximately 8%.

Zcash's ninth network upgrade NU7 has been activated at mainnet block 3,543,405, reducing the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, and cutting the block subsidy to one-third of its original amount, while maintaining the four-year halving cycle and the supply cap of 21 million coins.The upgrade introduces a network sustainability mechanism, with 60% of transaction fees allocated to reserves, while miners retain 40%; the reserve reissuance is scheduled to start in February 2031.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time November 5), the total net outflow of the U.S. ZEC and NEAR spot ETFs was $10.9941 million and $0.7738 million respectively, totaling a net outflow of $11.7679 million.For ZEC, on that day, the Zcash ETF (ZCSH) recorded a net outflow of $10.9941 million, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $207 million. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of the ZEC spot ETF is $724 million, with a net asset ratio of 3.39%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $207 million.For NEAR, on that day, only the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR) recorded a net outflow of $0.7738 million, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $80.4502 million. As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of the NEAR spot ETF is $58.0377 million, with a net asset ratio of 1.19%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $80.4502 million.

According to trader Ansem, Zcash has recently been one of the stronger assets in the cryptocurrency market. If the market experiences a deeper correction, he will pay attention to whether ZEC can maintain its resilience.He believes that as the cryptocurrency industry faces more political and regulatory scrutiny, the narrative around privacy may become increasingly important. Privacy features, concerns about quantum computing, and market interest in transparent blockchain alternatives have drawn his attention to ZEC.

According to CoinDesk, Zcash holders need to transfer approximately 16 million dollars from the oldest privacy pool Sprout before the NU7 network upgrade. This upgrade is expected to activate around 10:30 AM Beijing time on November 6 (Friday) (9:30 PM Eastern Time on Thursday), at which point these tokens will be unusable even if valid private keys are held.As of Thursday morning, there were still about 12,226 ZEC in the Sprout pool, valued at approximately 16 million dollars based on a price of 1,300 dollars per coin. NU7 plans to activate at block 3543405, which will reject version 4 transactions, the only transaction format that can spend Sprout tokens. ZIP 2003 retains the possibility of restoring access through future upgrades but warns that the withdrawal feature may never be re-enabled. NU7 will also reduce the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.

The Zcash Community Grant Committee (ZCG) has announced that it has decided not to proceed with the proposal put forward on October 29, which aimed to allocate approximately 98,000 ZEC as future mining rewards. The committee stated that subsequent funding arrangements should be determined through Zcash's existing governance processes. ZCG currently automatically receives 8% of newly issued ZEC, amounting to about 144 coins per day, and the treasury size is sufficient to support expenditures for many years, although its funding model and accountability have recently sparked controversy within the community.According to the original proposal, the committee intended to allocate 36,200 ZEC from its treasury of approximately 91,500 ZEC to inject into a sustainable network mechanism to supplement miner block rewards, thereby reducing the expected income until the halving in 2028. Co-founder Sean Bowe, founder Zooko Wilcox, and developer Daira-Emma Hopwood have proposed various alternatives, such as terminating automatic grants, restructuring the use of funds, or focusing on promoting the use of ZEC, but none have been approved yet. Until the network upgrade changes the rules, ZCG will continue to receive approximately 144 ZEC daily.

Gemini has now launched new prediction markets for Zcash and Hyperliquid.

Helius, the infrastructure company for Solana, CEO Mert stated that Anthropic and Claude are using Zcash to apply similar cryptographic technology globally for the first time.According to Anthropic's official website, Anthropic open-sourced the research prototype FlashProve on November 2, utilizing zero-knowledge proofs (zkSNARK) to achieve "provable reasoning," meaning that the model provider can prove that a certain response was indeed generated by the model it claims, without revealing the model weights.It is reported that the provider first publishes a commitment of the model weights offline, and then generates proofs for each request, which users can verify in seconds on a regular CPU. For example, with the 400 billion parameter Llama 4 Maverick, a single H100 can generate about 110 proofs per second for tokens, with each proof for a request of 1024 tokens being approximately 19 MB. This system was optimized with the participation of Claude, and its security properties are formally described using Lean.Anthropic stated that the current proof cost is about 70 to 95 times that of conventional inference GPU time, and it is still a research prototype, not yet ready for production use.

The current development fund model of Zcash (ZIP-1016) was proposed by joshs on the Zcash community forum, suggesting to terminate the Zcash development fund early before its scheduled expiration in November 2028.Currently, the development fund accounts for 20% of each block reward, with 12% going to the Coinholder Fund, which is distributed through retrospective funding voted on by coin holders every quarter; 8% goes to the Zcash Community Grant Committee (ZCG), composed of 5 elected community members. The total value of these two funds exceeds 300 million dollars.According to current rules, after the development fund expires, the entire block reward will belong to the miners. This proposal is a response to another proposal to "cancel the ZCG and retain the Coinholder Fund," which the poster believes is merely a compromise. The proposal is currently in the community discussion phase and has not yet entered the voting process.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, tweeted that Zcash does not need to reinvent its governance mechanism. Stakeholder voting has been functioning in capital markets for hundreds of years, and holder voting is merely its on-chain form. Experimental governance is not the mission of Zcash; its mission is privacy.Cameron Winklevoss stated, "It is time to end ZCG and all the distractions and misaligned goals it brings." Previously, Cameron Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler Winklevoss's Winklevoss Asset had submitted an S-1 registration statement for the Winklevoss Zcash ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This ETF plans to directly hold ZEC, intends to list under the ticker WINK on Nasdaq, with an expense ratio of 0.25%, and Gemini Trust Company will act as the custodian.

The Euronext exchange suspended the Zcash ETP from the cryptocurrency asset management company CoinShares just hours after its launch on the Paris market. The reason for the suspension is that the central securities depository is unable to support the related settlement operations, which prevents CoinShares from participating in the Zcash ETP trading.A spokesperson for Euronext stated that the suspension is not related to regulation but is a settlement infrastructure issue; the ETP will remain frozen until the central securities depository can fully support standard settlement operations. Currently, related products from 21Shares, Virtune, and Valor are still trading in the European market. According to the page content, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation will come into full effect on July 1, 2027, prohibiting licensed cryptocurrency companies from handling privacy coins like Zcash and interacting with anonymous wallets.

The funding scale of the Zcash development grant program continues to expand, with the current net funding estimated at approximately 125 million USD, far exceeding current expenditure needs. Sean Bowe, co-founder of Zcash and current head of Tachyon, has proposed a draft suggesting the termination of the current 8% block reward allocated to ZCG in a future network upgrade.There are currently four proposals in the community regarding the development funding mechanism, which involve terminating ZCG grants, canceling the entire development fund grant mechanism, or gradually reducing the grant proportion to zero. Supporters believe that the current mechanism allows funds to accumulate as the price of ZEC rises, but ZCG is not directly controlled by holders; opponents worry that cutting development funds without alternative solutions may impact the subsequent development and maintenance of the protocol. All proposals are still in the discussion stage and have not yet been finalized.