Zcash rallies 12% as developers finalize NU7 activation height

Zcash (ZEC) surged about 12% over the past 24 hours, as developers agreed on a mainnet activation block for the network’s NU7 upgrade, expected in early November.

The token traded around $1,270 at last look on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. The rally coincided with a Tuesday GitHub proposal by Zcash developer Sean Bowe setting the activation at block 3,543,405, expected around Nov. 5.

The value of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses advanced trustless zero-knowledge proofs is up more than 148% year to date.

“Height agreed at ZIP editor meeting,” Bowe wrote, adding that the team still needed to finalize the upgrade specifications before merging the proposal. Two developers approved the changes.

The Zakura NU7 dashboard also lists the upgrade as pending on mainnet at block 3,543,405, with activation expected around Nov. 5.

NU7 aims to reduce Zcash’s target block time by two-thirds to 25 seconds, allowing transactions to receive confirmations more quickly. The upgrade from 75-second block time has been undergoing testing since early October.

Meanwhile, the Zcash Foundation’s NU7 readiness tracker showed six of 12 tasks completed, with remaining work involving Zebra node synchronization issues and mainnet preparations. Developers have not confirmed whether these outstanding issues could affect the planned activation date.