Zcash Shielded News is a community article format based on the weekly Zcash Ecosystem Digest Newsletter.
Providing insight on current events and informing the community about important news in the Zcash ecosystem.
Check out the best Highlights below!
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Fact of the Week💡
By early November 2025, the amount of ZEC held in shielded addresses (Orchard) briefly crossed 5,000,000 ZEC, roughly ~30% of the circulating supply, up from ~11% at the start of 2025.
This is a big deal because more coins living in the shielded pool generally means a larger privacy set, so shielded usage becomes harder to analyze and more privacy-preserving for everyone.
📩 Quick Takes 🛡️ Zcash Foundation Updates: Network Expansion & SEC Inquiry Closed • The Zcash Foundation expanded DNS seeder infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe to improve network resilience and confirmed the SEC has concluded its review with no enforcement action. 🍰 Cake Wallet Launches Shielded Zcash support • Cake Wallet released version 5.7.0, introducing shielded-by-default Zcash support, swaps, AnyPay payments, passphrase wallets, background sync, and Cake Pay spending. 🌐 A Path Forward for Ledger & Zcash | Updates • The Ledger team shared updates on Zcash shielded support, including a Rust migration for the device app and plans to enable ZEC swaps in Ledger Live before the end of January. 🛡️ Shielded Labs | Crosslink Workshop (28th January) • Shielded Labs will host a hands-on Crosslink workshop with live staking, finalizer activity, and a dedicated Q&A session, with recordings available afterward.
The Zcash Foundation recently strengthened Zcash’s DNS seeder infrastructure after DNS seeders operated by ECC stopped responding on January 8. DNS seeders are critical for helping new wallets and nodes discover peers when joining the network.
While the network itself continued to operate normally, the reduced number of available seeders likely led to slower startup times for new clients.
In response, the ZF deployed five new DNS seeders in South Carolina and Oregon in the United States, and in Belgium, Germany, and Finland in Europe. Combined with the Foundation’s existing seeder in Iowa, there are now six DNS seeders operated by the Zcash Foundation live on the network.
This geographic distribution improves reliability and performance by reducing reliance on any single operator and enabling users to connect to nearby infrastructure. The Foundation is evaluating additional deployments, while Shielded Labs is also working to add more seeders.
Infrastructure operators interested in contributing are encouraged to coordinate via Discord or deploy their own seeders using the available Docker image and public infrastructure code.
Notice Concluding SEC Investigation
Continuing with updates from the Zcash Foundation, the team announced on the 14th that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded its review related to a prior inquiry.
On August 31, 2023, the ZF received a subpoena from the SEC in connection with an inquiry titled “In the Matter of Certain Crypto Asset Offerings (SF-04569).” The SEC has since informed the Foundation that it does not intend to recommend any enforcement action or other changes regarding this matter.
The Zcash Foundation remains committed to transparency, regulatory compliance, and advancing privacy-preserving financial infrastructure for the public good.
Last week, Cake Wallet has announced the release of version 5.7.0, marking the first time full Zcash support is available to its users. Cake Wallet is a privacy-first, open-source cryptocurrency wallet trusted by over one million users and developed in the open since 2018.
With this update, users can now use Zcash (ZEC) in Cake Wallet with a modern, shielded-by-default experience. Funds are automatically shielded on receipt, and all outgoing transactions originate from shielded addresses, preventing accidental privacy leaks. Transparent addresses are used only when required and rotate automatically to minimize address reuse.
The update also introduces background sync on Android, passphrase-protected wallets, and a single recovery seed that can manage multiple coins and wallets, including Zcash. This simplifies self-custody while maintaining strong security.
Cake Wallet includes built-in swaps and AnyPay support, allowing users to pay addresses in other supported assets without manually swapping coins. Shielded swaps are available via NEAR, with additional providers such as Exolix coming soon.
Real-world spending is enabled through Cake Pay, which allows users to convert ZEC into gift cards and debit cards directly from the wallet, making private money usable for everyday purchases.
Users migrating from Zashi should note that due to differences in change address handling, restoring a Zashi seed in Cake Wallet will not display all funds. A new Zcash wallet should be created in Cake Wallet and funds transferred manually.
12 days ago, Ledger has shared a status update on ongoing work to expand Zcash shielded support across Ledger devices and Ledger Wallet.
On the device side, the team is migrating the Zcash Ledger device app to Rust to match the previous implementation. This migration is a required step before shielded support can be added. Progress on this work is currently around 60 percent complete, with existing features being re-implemented first to ensure full feature parity and security.
For Ledger Wallet on desktop, development is focused on account synchronization for shielded balances. This work is actively underway and currently relies on a local Zaino node to validate and iterate on end-to-end synchronization logic.
In parallel, the Ledger team is also working on enabling Zcash swap functionality in Ledger Live. This effort is progressing well, and ZEC swaps in Ledger Wallet are expected to be enabled before the end of January, pending final testing.
These updates mark important steps toward broader Zcash support across Ledger’s ecosystem, with shielded functionality remaining a key focus as development continues. 🚀
Shielded Labs will host another interactive Zcash workshop on Wednesday, January 28, at 9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm UTC, on the Zcash Discord. This session is part of Milestone 4C and builds directly on last month’s Milestone 4B workshop, adding new staking actions and improvements to wallet UI and UX.
The workshop is being held in collaboration with members of the Zingo! team and will give participants a hands-on look at Crosslink in action. Two types of participants are welcome: stakers and finalizers.
Stakers will be able to join the Crosslink testnet using the Zingo! mobile wallet or a Shielded Labs desktop wallet. Participants will receive testnet ZEC (cTAZ) and perform basic staking actions.
Linux (Ubuntu 24.04) and macOS builds will be provided ahead of the workshop. This will be a live, hands-on session where attendees can watch staking and finalization unfold in real time on the Crosslink testnet.
There will be also a dedicated Q&A session focused on answering questions about Crosslink.
The session will include a live demonstration of staking and finalizer activity on the Crosslink testnet, followed by an open Q&A (❓┊staking-question).
Participants can ask questions live or submit them in advance, and a recording of the Q&A will be shared after the workshop.Join us! :)
Save the Date & Join us! 🙂
📅 | Date: Wednesday, January 28
⏰ | Time: 9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm UTC
💻 | Platform: Zcash Discord
💬 | Room/Stage: 🌐┊Stage