Zcash bounces 45% to $437 as Ironwood upgrade targets bug fix

ZEC rose 45% from a $300 low to $437 after developers proposed the Ironwood upgrade to fix a counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool.

"Zcash shipped the most consequential network upgrade in its history," Josh Swihart, founder of Zcash Open Development Labs, said in a post on X.

The Ironwood proposal, put forward by Shielded Labs, the Zcash Foundation and ZODL, would create a new shielded pool using repaired code, letting anyone running a node verify that no more than the correct amount of ZEC exists. The bug, present since Orchard launched on May 31, 2022, was discovered on May 29 by security researcher Taylor Hornby using Anthropic's Opus 4.8 model. An emergency NU6.2 upgrade activated at mainnet block 3364600 on June 3 at 03:00 UTC, temporarily disabling Orchard actions.

If users migrate from Orchard to Ironwood and no excess ZEC tries to leave the old pool, that would be strong evidence the vulnerability was never exploited, Shielded Labs said. ZODL targets Ironwood activation for late July 2026, pending testing and ecosystem coordination.

ZEC fell as low as $303 from above $600 after traders reacted to the vulnerability disclosure on Friday, according to CoinGecko. The token later hit a low of $250 on June 5 before rebounding 70% to $426. At the time of writing, ZEC traded at $437, up 10% in the last 24 hours.

David Schwartz, Ripple's former chief technology officer, said on X that if there were no exploits, users would remain safe whether or not they move their coins. Users who stay in the pool may be "lonely" there, but their funds would remain safe and accessible, he said.

The contrast with XRP highlights the divergence in crypto markets last week. XRP fell nearly 19% during the same period and has shown only a fragile recovery, while ZEC's upgrade narrative drove a sharp reversal from its June 5 lows.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.