Zcash ($ZEC) Plunges 14% as the NU7 Rally Fully Reverses and Longs Unwind

Published November 10, 2026, 10:00 PM PKT. Based on Binance market data of November 10, 2026, CoinGecko trending data of November 10, 2026, and derivatives and fund-flow reporting from CoinStats, published November 10, 2026.

Zcash ($ZEC) fell about 14% on November 10, 2026, giving back the entire rally that followed its NU7 upgrade and then some. On Binance, the coin traded at $1,021.85 at 4:51 p.m. UTC, down 13.78% over 24 hours, after opening the session at $1,185.13. The intraday high was $1,199.82 and the low was $1,005.68, putting the coin within $6 of the $1,000 round-number level.

The move made Zcash ($ZEC) one of the weakest large coins of the day. CoinGecko put the 24-hour fall at 12.9%, with the coin ranked 10th by market capitalisation at about $19.56 billion and 24-hour volume of about $1.05 billion. Bitcoin ($BTC) fell 2.4% to about $73,033 on the same day, while Ethereum ($ETH) fell 5.1% and Solana ($SOL) fell 5.5%, so the privacy coin fell roughly three times as far as the wider market.

The slide accelerated in the afternoon

The selling was not spread evenly through the day. Binance hourly data show Zcash ($ZEC) still closing at $1,186.52 at 2 p.m. UTC, then $1,093.97 at 3 p.m. UTC and $1,021.44 at 4 p.m. UTC. That is a fall of about 14% in two hours, with the heaviest selling landing after the US morning session opened.

The timing lines up with a weak day for risk assets. US consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, hotter than the 0.3% economists expected, and CME FedWatch put the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike on December 9 at 98.8%. Bitcoin ($BTC) had already slipped to about $73,730 within minutes of the 8:30 a.m. Eastern release of that inflation report. Zcash ($ZEC) held up through the morning and then broke lower in the afternoon, a pattern that points to leveraged positions giving way rather than a single piece of Zcash-specific news.

Longs took the hit as open interest fell

Derivatives data show the selling was driven by long positions unwinding. Total liquidations reached $5.21 million over 24 hours across Binance, Bybit and OKX, according to CoinStats, and longs accounted for 83.6% of that total, or $4.36 million, against $857,000 of short liquidations. The largest single liquidation was $1.83 million at 4 p.m. on November 9.

Open interest fell to $2.51 billion, down $292.48 million, or 10.44%, over a two-day window, CoinStats reported. Funding stayed near neutral, which points to long positions closing rather than new shorts opening. That is the shape of an orderly unwind, not a forced-selling cascade, but the size of the open-interest drop shows how much leverage had built up around the upgrade trade.

The NU7 rally is gone

The NU7 upgrade activated on the Zcash mainnet on November 6, 2026, at block 3,543,405, cutting the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. Block subsidies were scaled down by the same factor, so issuance is essentially unchanged, and the 21 million supply cap and the halving schedule were preserved. The upgrade also introduced a Network Sustainability Mechanism that removes 60% of transaction fees from circulation, with miners receiving the remaining 40%, and it retired the Sprout privacy pool, leaving about 12,224 Zcash ($ZEC) in that pool unspendable.

The upgrade produced a rally of roughly 9%, and Binance Square commentary described that premium as fully given back by November 8. On November 9, Zcash ($ZEC) lost 7.9%, the weakest of the top 25 coins, according to Cryptoticker, and only five of the top 100 cryptocurrencies rose 1% or more that day, CoinDesk reported. A draft proposal posted on November 8 by developers Dev Ojha and Evan Forbes for a NU7.1 upgrade that would cut block spacing further, from 25 to 20 seconds, added to the pressure, even though the proposal has no activation date and must pass a community poll first.

ETF flows turned negative

Fund flows have turned against the coin as well. The Grayscale Zcash ETF, which trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH, recorded an outflow of $10.99 million on November 5 and an inflow of $1.77 million on November 6, CoinStats reported. FXStreet reported net outflows of $13 million for the week before November 9, after a $17 million inflow the week before, a swing of $30 million in a fortnight.

The longer view is less bleak. Zcash ($ZEC) is still up about 160% over the past year and about 119% since the start of 2026, according to Finnhub, and it is about 67% below its all-time high of $3,191.93. The past month has been weak, with the coin down about 14% over 30 days, and the past five sessions down about 10%. The NU7 rally was a brief interruption in that slide, not a reversal of it.

The network kept running hot while the price fell

On-chain activity did not fall with the price. Hashrate reached a reported record 33.1 GSol/s on November 9, according to ZecStats, and CoinDesk Research reported that Ironwood, Zcash's newest shielded pool, gained about 122,000 Zcash ($ZEC) in October, taking total shielded supply to 4.97 million, or about 29.2% of circulating supply.

One flow drew attention for the wrong reasons. On November 8, on-chain data showed 1,670 Ethereum ($ETH), worth $3.73 million, leaving Tornado Cash and being swapped into 2,959 Zcash ($ZEC) on the Hyperliquid exchange over 20 hours, and analysts flagged the possibility that the coins could be shielded and resold. That claim remains unconfirmed, and no hack, exploit or new exchange delisting was reported. On November 9, Zodl, the wallet formerly known as Zashi, began rolling out self-operated infrastructure using Oblivious HTTP with Cloudflare and Fastly, so relays can see users' IP addresses but not the contents of their requests.

What comes next: the $1,000 test

The immediate question is whether Zcash ($ZEC) holds the $1,000 level it nearly touched on November 10. Trader commentary cited by CoinStats put pivot support at $1,112 to $1,119, a zone the price has already fallen through, with $1,000 as the next round-number support and $876, the 200-day exponential moving average, as the most distant reference point. On the upside, the $1,198 to $1,220 zone that held in early November is now resistance, followed by $1,237 and $1,292, and a daily close above the October high of $1,340 would be needed to restore a bullish structure.

Governance is the other live thread. Co-founder Sean Bowe has proposed ending automatic block-reward funding for the Zcash Community Grants programme, which holds a treasury of roughly $125 million, and five organisations, including the Zcash Foundation and ZODL, have proposed a timeline for proposals and polling tied to NU7.1. For now, the trade is simpler: a privacy coin that ran on an upgrade, gave it all back in four days, and is now testing the level that matters most to holders.

Sources

• Binance market data, ZEC/USDT 24-hour ticker and hourly klines, November 10, 2026 (primary source: last price $1,021.85 at 4:51 p.m. UTC, down 13.78% over 24 hours; open $1,185.13, high $1,199.82, low $1,005.68; hourly closes $1,186.52 at 2 p.m. UTC, $1,093.97 at 3 p.m. UTC, $1,021.44 at 4 p.m. UTC; quote volume $228.9 million)
• CoinGecko, trending coins and Zcash ($ZEC) market data, November 10, 2026 (primary source: 24-hour change of 12.9%, rank 10 by market capitalisation, market cap about $19.56 billion, 24-hour volume about $1.05 billion; Bitcoin ($BTC) down 2.4% to about $73,033, Ethereum ($ETH) down 5.1%, Solana ($SOL) down 5.5%)
• CoinStats, Zcash (ZEC) News Today: Why ZEC Is Down, 10 November 2026, published November 10, 2026 (secondary source: NU7 activation on November 6 at block 3,543,405, 75 seconds to 25 seconds; Network Sustainability Mechanism removes 60% of fees; Sprout pool retired with about 12,224 Zcash ($ZEC) unspendable; NU7.1 draft proposal of November 8 by Dev Ojha and Evan Forbes for 20-second blocks; liquidations of $5.21 million over 24 hours with 83.6% from longs, largest single liquidation $1.83 million at 4 p.m. on November 9; open interest down 10.44% to $2.51 billion; NU7 rally of roughly 9% fully given back by November 8; Zcash ($ZEC) lost 7.9% on November 9, weakest of the top 25 coins, per Cryptoticker; Grayscale Zcash ETF outflow of $10.99 million on November 5 and inflow of $1.77 million on November 6; $13 million in net weekly outflows after a $17 million inflow the prior week, per FXStreet; hashrate record of 33.1 GSol/s on November 9, per ZecStats; Ironwood shielded pool gained about 122,000 Zcash ($ZEC) in October, total shielded supply 4.97 million; 1,670 Ethereum ($ETH) worth $3.73 million swapped into 2,959 Zcash ($ZEC) on Hyperliquid on November 8; Zodl rollout on November 9; Sean Bowe proposal on Zcash Community Grants funding, treasury of roughly $125 million; support at $1,112 to $1,119 and $1,000, resistance at $1,198 to $1,220, $1,237, $1,292 and $1,340)
• Finnhub, Zcash ($ZEC) market data, November 10, 2026 (secondary source: price $1,021.45 at 4:51 p.m. UTC; five sessions down 10%, one month down 13.99%, six months up 107.05%, year to date up 119.17%, one year up 160.01%; all-time high $3,191.93; circulating supply 16,958,328.59; maximum supply 21 million)
• CME Group, FedWatch Tool, data of November 10, 2026 (secondary source: 98.8% probability of a 25 basis point hike at the December 9, 2026 meeting)
• Yahoo Finance, Bitcoin ($BTC) price data, November 10, 2026 (secondary source: $73,730.30 at 1:42 p.m. UTC after the October CPI release)

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.