Zcash’s Game-Changing NU7 Upgrade Goes Live, Slashing Block Times 3X as $5,000 ZEC Rally Comes Into Focus

Zcash activated its NU7 network upgrade at block 3,543,405 early Friday, cutting the privacy-focused cryptocurrency’s target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The upgrade introduced the Network Sustainability Mechanism, under which 60% of each block’s transaction fees go into a public reserve and miners receive 40%; reserved fees are set to be reissued through block rewards starting at block 8,939,664, expected in 2031. NU7 also retired Sprout, Zcash’s original privacy pool launched in 2016, leaving about $16 million worth of ZEC locked there. ZEC was down 0.8% over 24 hours and trading at $1,313 at press time.