💡 Fact of the Week
ZEC recently traded above $800 for the first time since January 2018, reaching nearly $885 during its latest rally.
📩 In today’s edition
📈 Grayscale Zcash ETF Begins Trading
• Grayscale launches ZCSH, bringing ZEC exposure to U.S. public markets.
🦓 Zebra 6.3.0 Brings Security Fixes and Direct Light Wallet Support
• Zebra 6.3.0 resolves four security advisories and adds initial direct light wallet support.
🔐 Hito Signs First Orchard-to-Ironwood Transaction on Physical Hardware
• Hito signs and submits its first Orchard-to-Ironwood transaction using a physical device on testnet.
🌸 Zakura Common Brings Major Performance Improvements to Zcash
• New cryptography libraries make proof generation and other Zcash operations significantly faster.
🌍 Zcash Connects With Builders at Web3 Lagos Conference 5.0
• Zcash Nigeria and community members joined Web3 Lagos for onboarding and conversations with local builders.
🛡️ The Hedge: A Zcash Update
• ZODL shipped new Zodl, SDK, and Zallet updates focused on migration, security, and reliability.
Grayscale Zcash ETF
Grayscale has launched the Grayscale Zcash Trust ETF ($ZCSH), bringing ZEC exposure to U.S. public markets through a traditional investment product.
The fund builds on the Grayscale Zcash Trust, which has provided investors with exposure to ZEC since 2017. With ZCSH now trading publicly as an ETF, investors can gain exposure to Zcash through brokerage accounts without having to directly buy, store, or manage ZEC themselves.
The launch comes amid growing institutional attention around Zcash. Alongside the ETF, Grayscale Research has continued making its investment case for ZEC, including the view that Zcash could capture part of Bitcoin’s market share as demand for financial privacy grows.
Zebra 6.3.0 Brings Security Fixes and Direct Light Wallet Support (Engineering Updates)
Following the activation of NU6.3 “Ironwood,” ZF released Zebra 6.3.0, a recommended security update that resolves four advisories related to chain-tip syncing and peer handling. Node operators are encouraged to upgrade.
A major addition is an initial lightwalletd-compatible server built directly into Zebra. Once enabled, node operators can serve light wallets directly from Zebra without running a separate lightwalletd server. The feature is currently disabled by default while development continues.
ZF also published a zcashd-to-Zebra migration guide, added Ironwood transaction signing support to frost-tools, and began early experimental work using QUIC as a faster way for nodes to connect and exchange data.
Hito Signs First Orchard-to-Ironwood Transaction on Physical Hardware
Hito successfully submitted its first real Orchard-to-Ironwood Zcash transaction signed on a physical Hito device, marking another step toward hardware wallet support for shielded ZEC.
The transaction completed the full hardware-wallet flow: it was created in Hito’s Android wallet, sent to the physical device for offline review and signing, returned to the wallet, and then submitted to the Zcash testnet.
The milestone builds on Hito’s previous work bringing Zcash transaction signing to its hardware wallet. The team says the next step is further testing and polishing the integration.
Zakura Common Brings Major Performance Improvements to Zcash
The Zakura team released Zakura Common 1.0, a new collection of open-source cryptography and protocol libraries designed to improve the performance of Zcash wallets and the Zakura full node.
According to the team’s benchmarks, mobile proof generation is more than 14x faster, Sinsemilla hashing more than 21x faster, trial decryption more than 1.5x faster, and zk-SNARK verification between 4x and 8x faster. The optimized cryptography can reduce the time spent creating a transaction from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in many cases.
The improvements require no Zcash network upgrade and are available today under the MIT/Apache 2.0 licenses. The upcoming Zakura 1.3.0 will fully switch to Zakura Common, while the team is also inviting wallet developers to adopt the new libraries to improve wallet performance.
Zcash at Web3 Lagos Conferece
Zcash was represented at Web3 Lagos Conference 5.0, bringing privacy education and ecosystem onboarding to one of West Africa’s Web3 communities.
A dedicated Zcash booth, set up by Dre, introduced attendees to the ecosystem, while Zcash Nigeria captured highlights and spoke with local Web3 builders about Zcash and financial privacy. Community members including Dre, Elzz, Omega, Kroy, and others were also present, connecting with attendees throughout the event.
The Hedge. A Zcash update.
ZODL shipped several updates this week across Zodl Wallet and Zcash Core. On Android, Zodl 3.10.1 improved handling of ZEC remaining in Orchard after an Ironwood migration, allowing users to choose whether to lock or move those funds, and fixed Keystone migrations so they split into signing rounds correctly.
Public 3.0.0 releases of the Zcash Android and Swift SDKs are also now available, while Zallet v0.1.0-beta.3 shipped with new PCZT-related JSON-RPC functionality, security hardening, and fixes for note commitment tree corruption and deep reorg handling.