Zcash (ZEC) Developers Confirm NU7 Upgrade for Nov. 5 With 25-Second Blocks

NU7 Locked for November 5

Zcash's next network upgrade now has a firm date. The team behind the Zcash protocol has confirmed that NU7 will activate on mainnet on November 5, after the developers and the engineering organization reached full consensus on the schedule. Developer Sean Bowe published the timeline in an X post announcing the testnet launch, set for October 6, with a final call on the exact mainnet activation height to follow on October 20 once testnet performance has been reviewed. The upgrade's headline change compresses the block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds — a threefold acceleration in block production that directly raises transaction throughput. NU7 also retires the version 4 transaction format and integrates the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), the supply-side configuration that dominated the run-up debate. A coinholder vote last week returned 98.9% support for preserving the halving schedule and 99.9% ZEC-weighted backing for faster blocks, as covered in our NU7 coinholder vote report; the adopted NSM keeps the existing halving cadence and reintroduces previously removed miner supply from February 2031. Bowe stressed that NU7 introduces no new transaction format, so wallet software should be unaffected, while full nodes, indexers and block explorers need updates to keep pace with the 25-second cadence during the October–November window. Track the full rollout in our Zcash news hub.

X post announcing the testnet launchhttps://x.com/ebfull/status/2100717879587135658

Whale Short Bleeds Past $30M

The market response has been sharp. ZEC broke above $1,400 and then pushed through $1,500 during the September 18 Asian session, with market data putting the token near $1,467 at latest quotes — up roughly 8.2% in 24 hours and 35.4% over seven days — for a market capitalization near $24.8 billion that lifts ZEC to ninth place among crypto assets. Derivatives positioning is swelling alongside price: futures open interest has climbed to roughly $3.48 billion, with 24-hour futures turnover near $12.67 billion against only about $1.42 billion in spot volume — a ratio that shows how much leverage is chasing the move. On-chain data pinpoints the market's most-watched position: a large ZEC short on Hyperliquid tied to trader Garrett Jin, built at an average entry near $665.85. The address added 5,000 ZEC to the short at about $1,252.5 the prior night, and its unrealized loss has widened from over $26 million to roughly $30 million as price crossed $1,500. Its estimated liquidation price sits near $2,631 — still far above spot. The same address withdrew 35,001 ETH, about $85 million, from Binance into Hyperliquid, though on-chain records confirm only the transfer, not its use as short margin. It follows a $1M short bet liquidation days earlier, and prior-day derivatives data showed roughly $345 million in market-wide forced closures, of which ZEC accounted for about $56 million — echoing an earlier liquidation wave on the opposite side of the book.

Qureshi's 'Final Round' Call

As price climbs, governance is back on the table. Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi argued in an X post on the Development Fund debate that the current funding era should be Zcash's last, winding down once the protocol is technically complete rather than persisting as a permanent institution. His core concept — protocol ossification — holds that a credible store of value requires users to trust its rules will not shift easily, the way the Bitcoin network's base layer has hardened. Qureshi accepts that the fund, which since NU6 directs 12% of block rewards to the Lockbox alongside transition funding for Zcash Community Grants, covered development private capital did not. But with ZEC near $1,517 at the time of his post — up roughly 194% in 30 days — the fund's economics now exceed $100 million, and he warns a richer treasury raises the risk of institutionalization and political contest over grant distribution. Freezing rules prematurely, he cautions, could complicate needed security work on Tachyon, quantum resistance and formal verification; the funding model itself runs to roughly the third halving in 2028. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Gate.

X post on the Development Fund debatehttps://x.com/hosseeb/status/2100699320790011943

October Testnet Is the Next Gate

COINOTAG's read: three threads — a faster chain, a contested treasury and a leveraged market — are converging on one calendar. The canonical NU7 release notes spell out the node-operator impact precisely: full nodes, indexers and explorers must adapt to 25-second blocks and the disabled version 4 transaction format, while wallets need no changes; testnet goes live October 6 and the mainnet activation height is fixed on October 20. With spot up 9.2% over the past 24 hours, that testnet window is the first hard checkpoint for whether the upgrade narrative — not just the squeeze — can hold the level. Until the Garrett Jin short unwinds and open interest peaks, expect volatility to stay elevated in both directions.