Zcash developers have set November 5 as the target date for the NU7 mainnet activation, a consensus upgrade that would reduce target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. Testnet activation is targeted for October 6, while October 20 remains the final mainnet decision point before the upgrade goes live. The faster block-time change is part of ZIP 254 and is designed to improve transaction inclusion speed for users, though it adds networking, storage and validation pressure for node operators.
Meanwhile, Grayscale’s Zcash ETF trading under ticker ZCSH has filed for a 3-for-1 forward share split. Shareholders of record at the close on September 28 will receive two additional shares per share held, with distribution after the market close on September 29 and split-adjusted trading expected to begin September 30. The fund has attracted more than $233 million in cumulative inflows since its August 25 launch, recorded a $46.6 million inflow on Wednesday and more than $112 million on September 8. As of September 17, the ETF held nearly $890 million in net assets and had generated over $11 billion in cumulative trading volume.
Zcash traded as high as $1,521 after rising about 2,800% over the past year. Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed that the investment firm had purchased an unspecified amount of ZEC. Trader Ardi said retail-sized trades below $10,000, mid-sized trades between $10,000 and $100,000, and larger transactions between $100,000 and $10 million were now buying at the same time, while mining solrate increased from about 25 GSol/s in late August to just under 32 GSol/s and mining difficulty reached about 291 million.
