Concerns briefly emerged on Wednesday after the Zcash blockchain appeared to stop producing new blocks for several hours, leading some users to speculate that the network had suffered an outage.
However, industry participants later clarified that the blockchain itself remained fully operational. The issue was traced to block explorers that failed to update correctly, creating the false impression that network activity had come to a halt.
Faulty Explorer Data Triggered Confusion
Earlier in the day, several block explorers showed no activity beyond block 3,364,603, which was recorded at 5:28 a.m. UTC. With no additional blocks appearing for more than four hours, rumors quickly spread that the Zcash network had gone offline.
Responding to the speculation, Mert Mumtaz dismissed claims of an outage and explained that the blockchain continued processing transactions normally.
According to Mumtaz, the problem stemmed from certain block explorers relying on a malfunctioning node. Because those services were receiving incorrect data, they failed to display newly produced blocks even though the chain itself remained active and healthy.
Network Upgrade Was Underway
The confusion came shortly after a coordinated protocol upgrade within the Zcash ecosystem aimed at addressing a security vulnerability involving Orchard, the network’s newest shielded transaction pool.
The upgrade process was initiated on June 1 after developers identified an issue affecting Orchard. In response, ecosystem participants, including developers, miners, infrastructure providers, exchanges, and community contributors, coordinated efforts to temporarily restrict Orchard related transactions while a fix was implemented.
The remediation took place in two phases through network consensus.
The first phase involved a soft fork that temporarily disabled Orchard functionality by blocking both the creation of new Orchard outputs and spending from existing Orchard funds. This approach helped reduce the risk of exposing sensitive technical details while developers worked on a solution.
The second phase introduced a hard fork that fully resolved the vulnerability and restored Orchard operations through updates to the network’s zero knowledge proof system.
Following the successful upgrade, Orchard transactions were reactivated.
According to the Zcash Open Development Lab, there is no evidence that the vulnerability was ever exploited. The organization stated that no unauthorized tokens were created, the total supply of ZEC remained unaffected, and user funds were never at risk. The issue was isolated to Orchard and did not impact Sapling or transparent transactions.
The vulnerability was originally identified during security reviews conducted by Zcash researcher Taylor Hornby, with remediation efforts coordinated by the Zcash Open Development Lab and the Zcash Foundation.
ZEC Continues to Outperform the Broader Market
Despite the temporary confusion surrounding the network, Zcash’s native cryptocurrency has maintained strong momentum.
ZEC has gained nearly 45% over the past month and was trading around $59.90 after adding another 4% during the latest 24 hour period.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez recently noted that the TD Sequential indicator on ZEC’s 12 hour chart generated a bullish signal, suggesting the possibility of further upside. According to his analysis, maintaining support above the $50 level could pave the way for a move toward $64.20.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics platform Santiment reported that ZEC has become one of the most discussed assets across crypto social media. The token recorded multiple spikes in social dominance, with its highest engagement score reaching 10.02 on May 20, highlighting growing interest from traders and investors.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
