Key highlights:
- The Ironwood upgrade introduces a new private transaction pool, closing the current Orchard pool
- The update will determine if counterfeit coins were ever created with an exploit that has since been patched
- ZEC has seen some upside after falling around 50% on the disclosure of the flaw
Zcash developers have officially confirmed that the network’s Ironwood upgrade will go live on July 28, after weeks of discussion and preparation.
The update is designed to fix the security issue that was discovered earlier this year in Orchard, the blockchain’s shielded transaction pool. Developers maintained that there was no evidence that the bug was ever used.
However, the integrity of the network’s token supply still came into question, which is what the Ironwood upgrade is designed to address.
Zcash upgrade aims to strengthen supply verification
According to Zcash developer Sean Bowe, Ironwood will activate at block height 3,428,143 on July 28. The confirmation ends the speculation that there might be a delay after some ecosystem participants asked for more time to prepare for the upgrade.
UPDATE: Over the last couple weeks we’ve made huge progress on Ironwood activation in Zcash!
1. All of the consensus rule changes have been implemented, and have been undergoing auditing for some time now. Specifications / ZIPs are published and nearing their final state.
2.… https://t.co/rjQSHM1uox— Sean Bowe (@ebfull) July 2, 2026
“Zcash’s Ironwood mainnet activation height has been set and tagged! All of the major organizations are committed to activation of NU6.3 at height 3428143, which is approximately July 28th at 8 AM EST,” he said.
Developers created the proposal after finding what later became known as the “infinity bug” in its Orchard pool. The vulnerability could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC tokens without detection.
The team made emergency fixes before the vulnerability became public, and there was no evidence that the bug was exploited. In fact, Anthropic also conducted an audit but found no red flags, clearing doubts.
But there was still a challenge. Because of the privacy features of Zcash, developers could not exactly confirm whether fake coins were created.
The Ironwood will help solve this problem. The current Orchard pool will stop accepting new activity, which means users will need to move their funds into a newly created private pool. Before entering the new system, the funds leaving will have to pass through an accounting checkpoint.
This could provide evidence on whether any counterfeit coins were ever generated. Shielded Labs had shared in June that this upgrade would shed more light on the flaw.
“As users migrate funds from the existing Orchard pool to the new pool, any hypothetical counterfeiter faces a choice: attempt to move counterfeit funds and risk exposing their existence, or leave them behind and risk being unable to move them in the future.”
ZEC market recovery continues
After the news of the bug was shared on June 3, the price of ZEC crashed by about 50%. It fell from $602.68 to $299.25 in a few days. The decline erased billions of dollars in the coin’s market value. At the time, there were conversations and debates about the future of privacy coins.
Since then, Zcash has recovered most of its losses. At the time of writing, ZEC was trading around $500. This suggests that investor confidence in the coin may have returned. There were bullish projections since developers started working towards getting the upgrade live.
The network also hit a new milestone as activity grows. Data showed that the circulating supply has climbed to almost 17 million ZEC tokens. This means over 80% of Zcash’s maximum supply of 21 million coins has now been issued.
Source:: Zcash Sets July 28 Date for Ironwood Upgrade to Prove ZEC Supply Integrity