ZEC jumps 11% to $513 as Ironwood upgrade lifts Zcash demand

Zcash climbed 11% to $513 on Aug. 5, reclaiming the $500 level as the Ironwood upgrade's supply verification drew fresh buying.

Zcash rose 11% to $513 during Asian trading on Aug. 5, reclaiming the $500 level as the Ironwood network upgrade drew fresh buying. CoinGecko data shows ZEC trading near $513 at the Asian session open, up from roughly $460 a week earlier and more than 12% over the past month.

The rally follows the July 28 mainnet activation of Ironwood, which introduced turnstile verification to the shielded pool after developers found a counterfeiting flaw in the Orchard pool. The mechanism requires coins leaving the legacy Orchard pool to pass through mathematical verification before entering the new shielded pool, sealing off the old pool and verifying total circulating supply.

Supporters argue the upgrade removes the "hidden inflation" discount historically applied to privacy coins by giving exchanges and institutions cryptographic assurance that every coin in circulation is accounted for. More than 1 million ZEC has migrated into the new shielded pool, according to project updates, with many users moving holdings into long-term shielded wallets rather than keeping them on centralized exchanges — thinning spot liquidity and making price moves more pronounced on fresh buying.

Mining economics add another tailwind. Digital Currency Group's Fortitude Mining expanded its owned capacity to more than 60 megawatts dedicated to ZEC after acquiring a 12.5-megawatt facility in Nebraska, cutting estimated mining costs from roughly $70 to about $40 per coin. Lower-cost operators face less pressure to sell rewards immediately, reducing the amount of newly mined ZEC reaching spot markets.

Demand is also emerging from new financial products. ZEC-backed derivatives such as SuperVega One-Touch Options on Starknet require market makers to source spot ZEC for collateral and hedging, generating additional buying as open interest grows. Privacy infrastructure provider Nym has integrated native Ironwood ZEC payments, expanding the token's transactional use beyond speculation.

Technicals point to $520 as the next test

On the daily chart, ZEC remains above its 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day exponential moving averages, with short-term averages stacked above longer-term ones. The Relative Strength Index has climbed to about 71.8, entering overbought territory, while on-balance volume continues to trend higher, showing the rally is supported by sustained buying rather than fading participation.

Price has reclaimed the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement near $504 and is testing the 0.5 level around $520. A move above that area would place the 0.618 retracement near $537 in focus, followed by the 0.786 level around $560 and the prior swing high near $598.

On the downside, the 20-day EMA near $492 and the 50-day EMA near $487 are the first support levels if profit-taking increases, with the 100-day EMA around $465 sitting close to where the rally began. Bitcoin's move from about $62,000 to above $64,000 has provided additional support for the altcoin's advance.

The Ironwood rollout follows a broader security push across the sector. Zcash disclosed in June that researcher Taylor Hornby, working with Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8, found two lines of code in the Orchard shielded pool that allowed undetectable counterfeiting of ZEC for four years, prompting the upgrade. The disclosure weighed on confidence before the fix, and the recovery reflects renewed trust in the network's supply integrity.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.