Zcash Market Cap Surges Above $23 Billion on Upgrade News 

Privacy-focused project Zcash has returned to the spotlight, as its network attracted renewed attention after holders approved changes targeting faster transactions. The decision lifted Zcash’s market valuation, placing its native token, ZEC, among crypto’s top 10.

The recent surge has turned a technical governance decision into a market story, attracting traders watching privacy coins and renewed momentum.

NU7 Vote Gives Zcash Clearer Direction

Zcash holders have approved an important update known as NU7. This follows the participation of nearly 2.4 million ZEC tokens in the decision-making process. NU7, or “Network Upgrade 7,” comes after previous updates, such as NU6, NU6.1, NU6.2, and Ironwood (NU6.3). This upgrade, like those prior to it, introduces changes that must be adopted by the nodes. 

Under NU7, the time to create new blocks is expected to decrease from 75 seconds to just 25 seconds. This reduction in block creation time is significant for regular users since blocks serve as the batches that record transactions. If everything goes as planned, the network will produce these batches approximately three times more frequently.

However, despite these improvements, NU7 retains Zcash’s existing Bitcoin-style halving schedule, rather than implementing a smoother issuance model. Notably, 99.9% of participants supported the faster block creation, while 98.9% agreed to keep the current halving schedule unchanged.

ZEC Rally Pushes Valuation Above $23 Billion 

The recent upgrade lifted Zcash’s market valuation above $23 billion. CoinGecko showed approximately $2.58 billion in trading volume over the last 24 hours. The circulating supply stands at around 16.934 million ZEC, with a maximum supply capped at 21 million ZEC. 

As of this writing, ZEC is priced at about $1,355, reflecting a daily increase of 17.0%. However, it is still significantly below its peak price, remaining 57.5% lower than its all-time high of $3,191.93.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that the NU7 upgrade has not yet been activated. The activation height is still being determined, and the proposed changes (ZIPs) must be finalized before testing on the testnet and, eventually, on the main network can occur. 

Additionally, the planned reduction of the block time to 25 seconds will need to be integrated, tested, and adopted by the software operating the network. 

Zcash has indicated that the major changes in NU7 will require the use of Zebra, a node developed by the Zcash Foundation, instead of the older zcashd.

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