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Zcash activates Ironwood, sealing its Orchard shielded pool
The upgrade also establishes a replacement shielded pool under NU6.3, and ZEC traded near $474 at publication after a week marked by futures-driven positioning.
Zcash activated Ironwood on July 28, a protocol change that seals the Orchard shielded pool and opens a replacement pool operating under NU6.3 rules, CryptoSlate reports. At publication, ZEC traded near $474, below the $500 level that held for much of July, and the token was down 12.4% over the prior seven days.
The update follows a critical flaw identified by Taylor Hornby on May 29, which allowed a crafted proof to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC within the private pool. Shielded Labs reproduced the exploit in a local test environment, and Orchard’s privacy design prevents cryptographic reconstruction of prior abuse. The outlet notes developers assessed exploitation as improbable, with the Zcash community reporting no evidence of supply alterations or user losses, though traders still had to price the monetary risk inside Orchard.
Zcash previously repaired Orchard under NU6.2 in June, and Ironwood now prevents transactions from creating outputs inside Orchard while moving withdrawals through a turnstile that caps outflows at legitimate ZEC amounts. CoinGlass data cited by CryptoSlate showed ZEC open interest at $926.4 million and 24-hour futures volume at $1.14 billion, compared with $89.9 million in spot volume, implying futures activity and liquidations were a major driver. The same snapshot showed 53% of accounts were long and 47% were short over one day.
Price performance has been mixed around the upgrade, with ZEC reaching $585.80 on July 15 before giving back more than 18% to the latest quote near $474. CoinGlass turnover analysis cited by the outlet estimated futures turnover at about 12.7 times spot turnover, highlighting how fast position closures and liquidations can amplify moves.