The short version
- Zcash NU7 now has a launch block, 3,543,405, due around November 5, and ZEC jumped about 12% in 24 hours on the news.
- The upgrade cuts blocks from 75 to 25 seconds, takes 60% of fees out of circulation, and makes coins left in the old Sprout pool unspendable.
- The crew is watching $1,368: ZEC stalled there in early October and again on Wednesday, with support at $1,250.
Zcash NU7 finally has a block number, and traders bought it within hours. On Tuesday, developers set the upgrade to go live at block 3,543,405, roughly two weeks away. ZEC jumped about 12% in 24 hours and tagged $1,368 on Binance on Wednesday.
It hasn’t held all of it. Zcash (ZEC USD) trades at $1,289 at the time of writing, up 2.59% over 24 hours and about 6% below that high. So is this the start of a run into the upgrade, or the same pop-and-drop ZEC pulled the last time NU7 made headlines?
Zakura, which runs an NU7 tracking dashboard, posted the height on Tuesday night:
Zcash's NU7 Mainnet activation height is being set to 3,543,405 (~November 5) as part of final changes to ZIP 259.
We've reflected this on our NU7 dashboard: zakura.com/nu7/
What Does the Zcash NU7 Upgrade Change?
NU7 makes Zcash blocks three times faster, from one every 75 seconds to one every 25 seconds. The deployment spec, ZIP 259, lists four main changes:
- Faster blocks. 25-second blocks, with caps on how many shielded actions fit in each one so wallets don’t drown in data.
- A fee sink. 60% of every transaction fee is taken out of circulation and paid back out slowly through future block rewards. The supply cap of 21 million ZEC does not go up.
- The Network Sustainability Mechanism. The new rule that does that slow payout, seeded with old block rewards miners never claimed.
- No more v4 transactions. Coins still sitting in Zcash’s oldest shielded pool, Sprout, can only move with v4 transactions. After activation they can’t be spent at all.
That last one is the line holders should read twice. If you have coins in an old Sprout address, move them before the upgrade. ZIP 2003 says the network isn’t burning them, but it also says spending them “may never be re-enabled.”
The height itself came from Sean Bowe, who opened the pull request on GitHub on Tuesday. It was merged on Wednesday, and the NU7 proposals moved from Draft to Proposed. Some outlets still call the height unofficial; it now sits in the spec.
DISCOVER: Funding Rates and Open Interest: Reading the Leverage in the Market
Is It November 5 or November 6?
Both, depending on your clock. At 04:48 UTC on Thursday the chain stood at block 3,526,315, so 17,090 blocks remain before Zcash NU7 switches on. At 75 seconds a block that lands late on November 5 in US time, or early November 6 in UTC. Blocks rarely arrive exactly on schedule, so give it a few hours either way.
The date can still slip. The Zcash Foundation’s readiness tracker had 6 of 14 items closed on Thursday, with sync bugs in the Zebra node software still open.
Who Is Buying the Zcash Rally?
Mostly leverage. CoinDesk reported that ZEC open interest rose 24% while the price rose 12%, with annualized funding around 10%. Its volume data showed sellers hitting bids into the rise. In other words, new longs piled in while spot holders used the pump to sell.
Spot volume was real, though. ZEC traded $1.15 billion in 24 hours against a $21.89 billion market cap.
For context, we have seen this film before. When NU7 went live on testnet on October 4, ZEC spent four days pushing into the $1,366 to $1,385 zone. On October 8 it lost 10.6% in one day.
Zcash Price Analysis: Can ZEC Break $1,368?
Not yet. ZEC needs a daily close above $1,368 to flip the ceiling that stopped it in early October and again on Wednesday. Price sits above its 50-day exponential moving average (EMA), a trend line that weights recent prices more, at $1,194, and far above the 200-day EMA at $797. The bigger trend is still up, even after the slide from September’s $1,698 high.
- In the bull case, a close above $1,368 puts $1,698 back in view as the upgrade gets closer.
- In the base case, ZEC chops between $1,250 and $1,368 until early November.
- In the bear case, losing $1,250 sends it back to the 50-day EMA at $1,194, then to the October 18 low at $1,049.
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EXPLORE: Trendlines, Ranges and Breakouts: Drawing Them Right and Trading Them Better
Upgrades often get bought on the announcement and sold on the day itself, so chasing a 12% candle two weeks early is a choice, not a plan. Watch $1,250. If the dip buyers keep showing up there, the run into November 5 is still alive.
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