Zcash (ZEC) Hashrate Hits Record High After NU7 Upgrade as Network Activity Surges

Zcash's network hashrate is at a record high, three days after the NU7 upgrade went live at block 3,543,405 on 6 November and cut the network's target block time from 75 seconds to 25.

For anyone holding ZEC, NU7 changes two things. Private payments confirm three times faster than before, and 12,224 ZEC sitting in the retired Sprout privacy pool can no longer be moved. Those coins were not burned, and the upgrade specification warns that "the ability to spend Sprout funds may never be re-enabled."

• The news: Zcash turned on NU7 at block 3,543,405 on 6 November, cutting the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 and retiring the Sprout pool.
• The figure: ZEC Stats puts the hashrate at 33.1 GSol/s on 9 November, up 159% on the year and a record for the network.
• What's next: Coinholder and community-panel polling on development-fund proposals runs from 16 to 30 November, after proposals were due on 8 November.

What NU7 Actually Changed

NU7 makes Zcash's blocks three times faster. Target times fell from 75 seconds to 25, and the upgrade now sets hard limits on how much private activity can fit in a single block: 330 Orchard or Ironwood actions, 300 Sapling inputs and outputs, and a shared budget of 330 across pools. It also blocks new Sprout JoinSplits.

The limits matter for wallets. The upgrade notes say they more than double Orchard protocol throughput while cutting the worst-case sync load a spammer can push onto light wallets by about 37%.

Version 4 transactions are rejected outright under the new rules. That is the transaction format the Sprout pool depends on, which is why the old pool is now closed to spending.

The upgrade does not touch Zcash's 21 million ZEC supply cap. It does change the halving interval: halvings now come every 5,040,000 blocks instead of 1,680,000, which keeps issuance on roughly a four-year schedule. Shielded Labs had proposed replacing halvings with a smooth issuance curve; community panels liked the idea, coinholders did not, and the final design kept the halving schedule. Two related ideas, ZIP 233 on voluntary burns and ZIP 234 on smoothed issuance, were left out of NU7.

12,224 ZEC Frozen, Not Burned

Sprout was Zcash's first shielded pool. Under ZIP 2003, NU7 rejects version 4 transactions, the only format that can spend Sprout funds, which leaves 12,224 ZEC stranded.

Those coins have not been burned. They simply cannot be transferred under the new rules. The specification leaves open the possibility that a later upgrade restores access, either by re-enabling version 4 transactions or by adding another way to retrieve the funds, but it does not promise one.

Where the Hashrate Record Comes From

ZEC Stats puts the network's hashrate at 33.1 GSol/s on 9 November, up 5.2 times over five years and 159% over the year. Hashrate readings vary slightly between dashboards, but the record is there on ZEC Stats' own page. Hashrate measures mining power, not user counts or price.

ZEC traded at $1,218.41 on 9 November, down 4.0% over 24 hours, with a market cap of about $20.8 billion and $1.0 billion of 24-hour volume, according to the same source. Its ETF holdings stood at 617,643 ZEC.

Shorter blocks carry a known risk. Run blocks too close together and more of them get orphaned, meaning a valid block that does not end up in the chain. Zakura developers tested the shorter interval using 80 nodes spread across 11 regions, with every block full of private transactions. They measured an orphan rate of 3.43% at 25-second blocks, against 1.57% at 75 seconds, and expect the live network to stay below 1%.

The Fee Reserve That Pays Out in 2031

NU7 also switches on the Network Sustainability Mechanism, which removes 60% of transaction fees from circulation and reissues those coins later through block rewards. The share applies to transaction fees, not to the block subsidy or to Zcash's total supply.

The reserve started at 368.5845 ZEC when NU7 activated. Coins are not expected to start flowing back through mining rewards until around February 2031, so the mechanism is a long-term change to fee economics rather than a near-term payout.

Shielded Labs built the NSM as its first project, tracing the idea to developer Nate Wilcox's earlier Zcash Posterity Fund proposal. Jason McGee, of the Zcash development organization, described the activation as a major milestone.

What Happens Next

Developers have already proposed NU7.1, which would cut target block times from 25 seconds to 20, just days after NU7 went live. It is a proposal, not a scheduled upgrade.

On funding, proposals were due on 8 November, and coinholder and community-panel polling is set for 16 to 30 November. A separate proposal would have Zcash Community Grants send 50,000 ZEC from its treasury to the NSM; that contribution remains under consideration and was not enacted in NU7.

The date to watch is 16 November, when coinholders and the community panel start voting on how Zcash development gets paid for next.