For several hours on Wednesday in Asia, the Zcash blockchain appeared to stop producing new blocks, prompting concerns that the network might be down.
Observers later clarified that the problem did not lie with the blockchain itself but with block explorers that failed to update properly.
Zcash Outage Scare
Earlier in the day, block explorers displayed no new blocks after block 3,364,603, which was recorded at 05:28 UTC, for more than four hours. That led to speculation that the chain had gone offline. Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz publicly addressed the confusion, saying reports of a network outage were incorrect.
Mumtaz explained that the network was functioning normally and that the apparent disruption was caused by some block explorer services being connected to a faulty node. Those services therefore showed an incorrect view of chain activity, making it appear that no new blocks were being produced even though block production continued in the background.
The misleading appearance of inactivity followed a coordinated network upgrade within the Zcash ecosystem designed to address a vulnerability affecting Orchard, Zcash’s most recent shielded pool. The Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) said the upgrade began on the evening of Monday, June 1, in response to an issue identified in Orchard. Developers, infrastructure operators, miners, exchanges, and other independent participants collaborated to temporarily suspend Orchard-related transactions while a protocol update was rolled out.
The remediation proceeded in two stages via network-wide consensus. First, a soft fork was activated to temporarily disable Orchard by blocking new Orchard outputs and preventing spending from existing Orchard funds; this step helped limit exposure of sensitive technical details. That was followed by a hard fork to fully remediate the vulnerability and restore Orchard functionality, which required updates to the zero-knowledge proof circuit.
After the upgrade was completed, Orchard transactions were re-enabled. ZODL reported no evidence the vulnerability was exploited, no unauthorized creation of value, and no impact to the total ZEC supply. User funds remained secure throughout the process, and the issue did not affect Sapling or transparent transactions.
The vulnerability was discovered during security audits conducted by Zcash researcher Taylor Hornby. The remediation effort was coordinated by ZODL together with the Zcash Foundation and other participants across the ecosystem.
ZEC Momentum Strengthens
Zcash’s native token, ZEC, has moved counter to the broader market trend by delivering strong gains over the past month. The privacy-focused asset rose nearly 45% during that period and was trading near $599 after gaining another 4% in the past 24 hours.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez noted that the TD Sequential indicator on the 12-hour chart recently flashed a buy signal for ZEC, suggesting that upward momentum could continue. As long as the token holds above the $500 level, a potential move toward $642 remains possible.
On social channels, Santiment identified ZEC as the dominant topic across crypto social media, registering seven spikes in social dominance and a peak score of 10.02 on May 20.