Summary
- ZEC surged to $1,388 after the NU7 sentiment polls concluded on Sunday.
- A remarkable 98.9% of coinholders voted to maintain halvings, with 2.4 million ZEC cast, accounting for 66% of the eligible votes.
- The privacy-focused cryptocurrency has seen its value triple since the Ironwood upgrade in July and has skyrocketed over 2,500% in the past year, influenced by a Grayscale ETF launch.
Zcash experienced a significant increase, reaching $1,388 on Thursday, following a community decision regarding its upcoming network upgrade. Currently, ZEC is priced at $1,368, reflecting a daily increase of 10.9% and a 168% rise over the past month, making it the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at $22.9 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
This upward movement in the rankings indicates that "the market is redefining the value of privacy," as noted by Tim Sun, a senior researcher at HashKey, who described Zcash as "the leading front-runner in this wave of narratives."
Roxana Nasoi, a core contributor at the privacy network Logos, articulated its significance more directly, stating, "Privacy denies everyone else the knowledge that makes you a target."
NU7, ETF, and Privacy
The coinholder vote on five aspects of the NU7 upgrade yielded results on Sunday, with a turnout of 66%. Eligibility was determined by the spendable shielded ZEC held in the Ironwood pool at block 3,459,350 on August 24, operating on a one coin, one vote basis. Ballots were encrypted and divided into 16 unlinkable segments to ensure voter anonymity. An overwhelming 98.9% voted to retain Bitcoin-style halvings instead of opting for smooth issuance, alongside preferences for 25-second blocks, immediate retirement of the legacy Sprout pool, and a commitment to deliver whatever is ready by September 30.
A contentious issue arose regarding the timing for a sustainability mechanism to start recycling fees back to miners. Coinholders favored a start date of February 2031 by 96.6%, while advisory panels preferred an immediate implementation.
Myriad: Where does crude oil go next? Click to make your prediction.Organizations such as Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation, and Valar Group have aligned with the February 2031 date as "the most conservative interpretation of the results," with plans for another poll to revisit the matter.
Over the last year, ZEC's value has soared more than 2,500%, a rise Nasoi attributes partly to the introduction of Grayscale's ETF last month, which provided institutions with a previously unavailable pathway to Zcash.
Since the ETF's launch in August, privacy coins have gained attention, according to Sun, as the initiative "alleviated regulatory concerns" and coincided with a shift in the sector's narrative.
The focus has transitioned "from pure anonymity to financial privacy and confidentiality," he explained, a distinction made more pronounced by AI technology that "rapidly reduces the cost of identifying address behaviors, counterparties, and asset changes."
Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, emphasized that "the world is waking up to the need for on-chain privacy," highlighting that Zcash has successfully navigated a critical bug, implemented post-quantum upgrades to strengthen its protocol, and seen its token value triple in just three months.
In July, Zcash's Ironwood upgrade was launched following the discovery of a four-year-old vulnerability that could have permitted counterfeit ZEC to be created. The revelation initially caused a 38% drop in price. The upgrade effectively contained any counterfeit coins in a retired pool and introduced quantum-resistant transaction records.