Zcash fixed the flaw that nearly halved ZEC, and $926 million in leverage now tests the rebound

Zcash activated Ironwood on July 28, sealing the Orchard shielded pool and opening a replacement pool under the NU6.3 rules. ZEC traded near $474 at publication, below the $500 area that held for much of July, and was 12.4% lower over seven days.Two months earlier, ZEC led one of the year’s strongest altcoin bursts, with Santiment flagging a 17% surge from roughly $568 to $686 in six hours on May 20, with about $28 million in liquidations.The rally happened alongside other altcoins, such as Hyperliquid’s HYPE, which extended the same rotation to a record $76.87 on June 16.ZEC momentum was cut short before its peers when Taylor Hornby found a critical flaw in Orchard on May 29, allowing a crafted proof to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC within the private pool.Shielded Labs reproduced the exploit in a local test environment, and Orchard’s privacy design prevents the cryptographic reconstruction of any prior abuse.Developers assessed exploitation as improbable, and the Zcash community reported no evidence of supply alterations or user losses. Traders still had to price a monetary risk inside Orchard, even though the network’s turnstiles protected the overall supply cap. ZEC fell fro...