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Zcash NU7 Upgrade Goes Live, Cutting Block Times as ZEC Open Interest Drops
Faster Private Payments Arrive Alongside New Mining Rewards and Mixed Market Signals
TL;DR
- Zcash activated its NU7 network upgrade, reducing the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds to accelerate private transactions.
- NU7 changes transaction fee distribution, increases shielded payment capacity and retires the original Sprout privacy pool.
- ZEC traded near $1,300 despite broader crypto losses, while open interest readings diverged and Grayscale's ZCSH fund recorded outflows.
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Zcash activated Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) early Friday, November 6, 2026, introducing faster private transactions, new wallet protections and changes to mining rewards. The upgrade went live at block height 3,543,405, reducing the target block interval to one-third of its previous length. The technical changes arrived as ZEC showed relative resilience during a broader cryptocurrency market selloff, although derivatives positioning and investment fund flows presented a mixed picture.
The activation block was mined at 02:34 UTC. By 04:59 UTC, Zcash had produced another 225 blocks, averaging approximately 39 seconds between blocks, according to ZecStats. Mining difficulty was still adjusting to the faster schedule.
Zcash allows users to send shielded transactions that conceal the sender, recipient and transferred amount. Shorter block intervals are intended to make these payments more practical for merchants, exchanges and cross-chain transfers.
A merchant could receive an initial confirmation more quickly, while an exchange requiring three confirmations could see its expected processing time fall from nearly four minutes to approximately the new target interval multiplied by its confirmation requirement. Actual availability still depends on each service's policies.
How NU7 Improves Zcash Transaction Speed and Wallet Efficiency
NU7 introduces changes to transaction processing and network capacity alongside its faster block schedule. Maintaining shorter intervals requires miners to receive and verify newly produced blocks quickly enough to avoid competing blocks being discarded.
Zakura, Zcash node software developed by Valar Group and Project Tachyon, was tested using 80 computers distributed across 11 regions. Each block was filled with transactions to measure performance under demanding conditions. The tests found that 3.43% of mined blocks were discarded at the faster pace, compared with 1.57% under the previous schedule.
Zakura's developers also optimized transaction verification to reduce repeated work. The software now retains parts of its initial checks when a transaction enters the network, allowing that work to be reused when the transaction appears in a mined block. Checks dependent on current balances and blockchain history still run again.
NU7 also introduces limits on private transaction activity within each block. Shielded wallets must scan blockchain data to identify payments intended for their owners, making them vulnerable to additional processing demands when the network is flooded with transactions. The new limits are designed to reduce this burden while supporting greater capacity.
According to the upgrade specification, the worst-case daily wallet download requirement falls from 271 megabytes to 169 megabytes. Combined with more frequent blocks, the changes could increase the network's estimated capacity for simple private payments from approximately three transactions per second to more than six.
The upgrade additionally expands capacity for the Orchard shielded pool and introduces new protections against wallet spam.
NU7 Changes Mining Fees and Retires the Sprout Privacy Pool
Zcash's revised transaction fee mechanism allocates 40% of fees directly to miners, while the remaining 60% is removed from circulation and recorded in a reserve for future mining rewards. The reserve is scheduled to begin contributing to block rewards around February 2031.
The mechanism is designed to support future miner compensation while maintaining Zcash's fixed supply cap of 21 million coins. Rather than immediately distributing all collected transaction fees, the network sets aside a portion for later payments.
NU7 also retires Sprout, Zcash's original privacy pool introduced in 2016. The change leaves approximately 12,224 ZEC unspendable within the retired pool.
Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe has outlined a possible mechanism to recover the affected funds, although no recovery proposal had been approved as of Friday.
ZEC Price Holds Up as ETF Outflows and Futures Data Diverge
The ZEC price remained relatively resilient during Friday's broader crypto market correction, although its derivatives activity and institutional fund flows offered contrasting signals.
Coinglass data showed a decline in Zcash futures open interest, a measure of outstanding derivatives positions.
The following figures summarize the market movements and investment flows reported around the upgrade.
Open interest represents futures contracts that remain outstanding. A decline alongside falling prices can indicate traders reducing leveraged exposure, either by closing positions or through liquidations. However, the reported decrease does not establish which mechanism accounted for the change.
The wider market selloff generated more than $1 billion in derivatives liquidations on Thursday, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and several major altcoins recording substantial declines. Meanwhile, withdrawals from Grayscale's ZEC-focused exchange-traded fund, which trades under the ticker ZCSH, indicated reduced exposure among fund investors despite Zcash's relative price strength.
Technical Indicators Show Key Resistance for ZEC
ZEC's technical outlook remained divided between short-term resistance and a broader upward trend. Analysts identified support around $1,250, with a sustained recovery through the 1,260–1,275 corridor potentially supporting a further rebound. A decline below $1,230, however, would indicate that the attempted recovery had failed.
The daily-chart assessment identified a higher resistance level of $1,340, corresponding to the October 8 high. A confirmed daily close above that level could shift attention toward the September 26 peak of $1,698.
On the downside, the analysis placed the lower boundary of the consolidation range at $1,112, corresponding to the October 8 low. An intermediate support level was the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) near $1,216, which remained above the 200-day EMA at approximately $856.
Momentum indicators also showed a constructive longer-term technical setup. The daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) stood near 53, above the neutral threshold of 50, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remained above its signal line.
Bullish scenario depended on buyers overcoming resistance and maintaining momentum. Without that confirmation, ZEC could remain within its existing trading range despite the activation of the network upgrade.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
