Ironwood Upgrade Tests Rebound of Zcash Amid $926 Million in Leverage
Zcash implemented the Ironwood upgrade on July 28 to seal the compromised Orchard pool and open a new one under the NU6.3 rules.
The upgrade comes after Taylor Hornby discovered a critical flaw in Orchard on May 29, which allowed for unlimited counterfeit ZEC creation within the private pool.
Despite developers assessing exploitation as improbable and no evidence of supply alterations or user losses, traders had to price in monetary risk due to the uncertainty.
ZEC plummeted from around $624 to $309 in 48 hours after the flaw was discovered, nearly cutting its value in half.
The Ironwood upgrade seals the old pool and rejects new outputs into Orchard, while exits pass through a turnstile that caps outflows at legitimate inflows.
Nodes can now verify circulating supply under the new structure, restoring a verifiable supply ceiling from activation onward.