Zcash sets Nov. 5 target for NU7 upgrade, trims block time to 25 seconds ⏱️

Zcash developers are targeting Nov. 5 for the NU7 mainnet upgrade after engineering teams reached unanimous agreement on the contents and timeline, developer Sean Bowe said Thursday. The upgrade is scheduled to activate on the Zcash testnet on Oct. 6, with a final decision on the mainnet activation height set for Oct. 20 following an assessment of testnet performance.

NU7 would reduce Zcash's target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, disable version 4 transactions and integrate the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM). Under the chosen configuration, the NSM would preserve Zcash's halving schedule, with the reintroduction of previously removed supply beginning in February 2031.

Bowe said NU7 would not introduce new transaction formats and should not significantly affect wallets, though full nodes, indexers and block explorers may require adjustments. The timeline followed a governance vote in which ZEC holders overwhelmingly backed the shorter block interval and preserving the halving schedule: 98.9% supported keeping halvings, while 99.9% of the Zcash (ZEC)-weighted vote supported the faster-block proposal.

The upgrade announcement came amid a recent surge in ZEC's price. On Thursday, ZEC rose about 20% over 24 hours as privacy coins substantially outperformed the wider market. Glassnode data showed that the privacy-coin sector was 213% above its level at Bitcoin's October 2025 peak, while a basket excluding ZEC was up about 85% over the past year.

Separately, Zcash miner Fortitude has tapped former Hut 8 CEO to lead the company ahead of a planned public listing.