Zcash Ironwood Upgrade Seals Flawed Orchard Pool, Triggering $80M Migration

Woofun AI reports that the activation of the Ironwood upgrade immediately sealed the Orchard pool, a response to a counterfeiting flaw that had remained undetected for four years.

By Wednesday, approximately 176,000 ZEC, valued at roughly $81 million, had migrated into the new Ironwood shielded pool. This volume represents about 5% of the 3.66 million ZEC held in Orchard at the moment of activation.

Woofun AI data shows that Orchard's balance has since dropped to 3.51 million, with an additional 46,000 ZEC crossing over in the past 24 hours, according to the Ironwood migration tracker.

Structurally, Zcash segregates funds into distinct pools representing different generations of privacy technology. The transparent pool, which operates like bitcoin with fully visible balances, holds about 12.5 million ZEC. In contrast, shielded pools conceal transaction details; Sapling, launched in 2018, contains 582,000 ZEC, while Orchard, introduced in 2022, held approximately 3.5 million before the upgrade.

The migration process is voluntary, meaning the timeline depends on how quickly holders, wallets, and exchanges move funds. Since Tuesday, Orchard has been closed to new deposits, and existing coins must exit through the 'turnstile' rule, which caps withdrawals at verifiably deposited amounts, ensuring the pool's balance can only decrease.