Zcash drops 32% on Kraken in five days after NU7 upgrade

ZEC falls below $1,000

Zcash fell about 32% on Kraken in the five days after its NU7 network upgrade, according to Bitcoin.com News DE. ZEC traded at $1,388.63 on 6 November, the day the upgrade activated, and dropped to a low of $949.52 on 11 November. At about 05:20 CET on 12 November it cost around $983.

The upgrade shortened the target block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds, as set out in the Zcash improvement proposal ZIP 218. The report does not state why the price fell after activation.

ZEC is about 42% below its yearly high of $1,695 on 26 September. It is still up about 92% since the start of the year on Kraken.

Monero holds up better

Monero fell less over the same period. XMR dropped from a high of $647.02 on 4 November to $540.96 on 10 November, about 16%, then rose 3.4% on 11 November while ZEC lost another 7.8%.

Comparing closing prices on 6 and 11 November, Zcash lost about 27% and Monero close to 5%. One ZEC bought 2.16 XMR on 6 November and 1.65 XMR on 11 November.

Monero is up about 32% since the start of the year on Kraken and trades about 28% below its record high of $799.89 on 14 January. At around $566 on 12 November it sits just under 9% above its 0.382 Fibonacci support near $517, according to the report.

Two privacy models

The two coins hide transactions differently. Monero conceals sender, recipient and amount for every transaction by default, using stealth addresses, ring signatures and Ring Confidential Transactions, according to the Monero project.

Zcash lets users choose. Its documentation describes transparent addresses, which are publicly visible like Bitcoin, and shielded addresses that hide sender, recipient and amount.

The difference shows in analysis. In a study of darknet markets, blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs left Monero out, so its figures cover only traceable payments, the report says.

EU rules and exchange access

Kraken stopped trading and deposits for Monero for customers in the European Economic Area on 31 October 2024 and converted remaining balances to Bitcoin after 31 December 2024, citing regulatory changes.

Since the end of 2024, the EU's MiCA regulation applies to trading platforms. Article 76 excludes crypto-assets with built-in anonymisation features from trading unless the platform operator can identify holders and their transaction history, the report says.

From 10 July 2027, Article 79 of the EU anti-money-laundering regulation bars crypto-asset service providers from keeping accounts that allow transactions to be anonymised or obscured to a high degree, including through anonymity-enhancing crypto-assets. The report says the rule covers assets designed to anonymise transfers either systematically or optionally, and sees no exception for coins with voluntary shielding such as Zcash. It applies to credit and financial institutions and crypto service providers, not to users holding their own wallet.

The regulation does not apply in Switzerland. Zcash developer Shielded Labs is based in Zug, and Zurich-based 21shares offers Europe's first exchange-traded Zcash product, according to the report.