Zcash sets November 5 target to cut block times to 25 seconds

Zcash developers have set the mainnet activation height for NU7, the network's next upgrade, at block 3,543,405. That points to around November 5. The change cuts the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25.

The height was agreed by the editors of the Zcash Improvement Proposals and merged into the project's public specification repository on October 21, 2026. Developer Sean Bowe opened the pull request, which says the figure is the one the ZIP editors "agreed." Two other developers signed off on it.

ZEC traded near $1,302 at about 02:40 UTC on 22 October 2026, according to CoinGecko, which put its market value around $22 billion, tenth among coins. It had gained roughly 14 percent over the previous seven days, crypto.news reported.

What NU7 changes

NU7 is a consensus upgrade, which means every node on the network has to run software that supports it. Its headline change is speed. Blocks would arrive about every 25 seconds instead of every 75, roughly three times as often. For comparison, Bitcoin aims for one block about every 10 minutes.

Faster blocks do not raise the supply. Zcash keeps its cap of 21 million coins and its halving schedule, according to the proposal and reporting by crypto.news. Because blocks come three times as often, the reward paid in each one drops to a third of the current amount, so the total issued over time stays on the same path.

The upgrade also changes how transaction fees flow. A system called the Network Sustainability Mechanism takes 60 percent of the fees collected in each block out of circulation and parks them in a publicly tracked balance. Miners keep the other 40 percent. Those parked funds are due to start flowing back into supply around February 2031, at block 8,939,664.

Why the November 5 date is an estimate

November 5 is not a fixed calendar date. Activation happens only when the chain reaches block 3,543,405, and nobody controls exactly when that is. The date is an estimate.

Estimates differ a little. crypto.news put the target at around November 5. A separate developer note cited in the repository points to about 00:50 UTC on November 6. Both are projections from the current block rate, so the real moment can drift by hours.

Headlines calling the upgrade confirmed run slightly ahead of the detail. The activation height is set in the proposal repository now, after the pull request merged on October 21. Not before. Client software that miners and users run still has to ship versions that recognize the new rules. ZIP 259 warns that nodes without NU7 support could stall on an old fork once it activates.

What Sprout pool holders must do

NU7 disables a transaction type, known as version 4, that is the only way to spend coins held in Zcash's first privacy pool, called Sprout. Any ZEC left in Sprout when NU7 activates becomes unspendable. Holders with funds there have to move them into a supported pool first.

Sprout dates back to Zcash's 2016 launch and has been wound down for years, so the balance still held there is small. Moving the coins out is a wallet-level job for the people affected, the sort of self-custody housekeeping that catches out holders who forget what they hold. Funds in newer pools are not touched.

These pools matter because privacy is the whole point of Zcash. It can hide sender, receiver and amount in its shielded pools, a sharp contrast with Bitcoin's public ledger, where every transaction is visible to anyone who looks.

What to watch

Node software is the next marker to watch. Releases from the main client teams, including the Zcash Foundation's Zebra, need to carry NU7 support before activation, and reporting says Zebra already does. Watch the block height too. As the chain nears 3,543,405, the activation time will firm up from an estimate into a near-certain date.

One caution sits with the price. ZEC has run hard in 2026, and faster blocks do not change what the coin is worth or make it cheaper to use. Supply and privacy design stay the same. The goal is a smoother, quicker chain, not a payout.