ZEC Price Sinks 6% Despite Mining Pools Deploying Zcash Security Updates

The Zcash price has moved lower even after the network disclosed that critical software fixes had been deployed across major mining operations. $ZEC was trading near $325.95, down about 5.47% over 24 hours, while its market capitalization stood at $5.42 billion. Daily trading volume reached $476.94 million.

The decline came after Zcash Open Development Lab and the Zcash Foundation announced coordinated patches for vulnerabilities in both zcashd and Zebra.

The network said the flaws were not used to affect the consensus chain. It also said all user funds remained safe and user privacy was not at risk. According to the disclosure, none of the vulnerabilities could on their own have been used to inflate $ZEC supply. Even so, the market reaction stayed cautious, with traders focusing on near-term price weakness rather than the fact that the fixes were already in place before the public update.

Critical Patches Were Deployed Before Public Disclosure

Zcash said the updated releases included zcashd v6.12.1 and Zebra v4.3.1. The fixes addressed four vulnerabilities, including an Orchard action-encoding bug that could crash nodes processing certain transactions. The disclosure also referred to a consensus enforcement gap between the two implementations that could have triggered a chain split, a bug tied to zcashd turnstile accounting, and undefined behavior linked to unchecked integer arithmetic in pool balance calculations.

The project stated that mining pools representing a supermajority of network hash power had already deployed the patches. The main operator using Zebra in mining production had also updated before disclosure. Zcash said there was no evidence that any of the issues had been exploited. That reduced the risk of disruption at the network level, but it did not stop the token from slipping during the session.

The security update arrived at a time when market participants were already watching several moving parts across privacy coins and mid-cap crypto assets. In that setting, even a controlled disclosure can affect short-term sentiment, especially when traders react to the headline before reading the full technical explanation.

Network Data Remains Firm Even as Price Retreats

While $ZEC moved lower, several on-chain and network indicators remained steady. Zcash said the shielded pool recently reached an all-time high, with 31% of all $ZEC now held in the encrypted pool. A year earlier, that share was 11%. The project also said 59% of transactions are now shielded, pointing to continued usage of its privacy features.

Zcash is also testing NIST-standardized lattice-based cryptography, including ML-KEM and ML-DSA, as part of its post-quantum work. The update came after a Google paper published on March 31 raised new discussion around quantum computing timelines. At the same time, Zcash network hash rate reached a record 16.54 GS/s, showing continued mining participation even during the latest market pullback.

These metrics show that the selloff did not come with signs of network failure. Instead, the price move appeared to reflect a gap between market sentiment and network conditions. Traders often respond to immediate price pressure, while technical improvements and usage data tend to shape longer-term views.

$ZEC Price Chart Keeps Focus on Support Near $310

On the 12-hour chart, $ZEC price is still trying to transition from a recovery phase into a broader reversal structure. The chart shows a rounded base forming from the February lows, with price moving back into the $310 to $330 zone. That area now acts as a key support band after the recent attempt to break higher.

Source: X

$ZEC recently touched the $380 area before pulling back, which suggested that buying momentum cooled ahead of the next resistance test. As long as price stays above the $310 to $330 range, the higher-low structure remains in place. A stable retest of that area could support another move upward if buyers return.

The next major resistance zone remains between $430 and $450. That band has rejected price several times before, making it the main upside level on the chart. If support near $310 fails, traders may look back toward the mid-$200s, where the rounded base began to form.