Zcash Activates NU7, Taking 60% of Transaction Fees Out of Circulation

Zcash activated its NU7 upgrade at block 3,543,405 on Thursday night, switching on Shielded Labs' Network Sustainability Mechanism. The change removes 60% of transaction fees from circulation, directing them toward long-term protocol funding rather than miners. The privacy-focused chain's native ZEC token now has a structural supply sink tied to on-chain activity, though fee volumes remain small relative to issuance. It matters as one of the first live implementations of a fee-burning sustainability model on a proof-of-work privacy chain. Watch next whether ZEC transaction volumes rise enough for the mechanism to meaningfully affect circulating supply, and how other privacy and PoW networks respond.