Key Summary

Zcash's next major network upgrade NU7 is being driven toward mainnet activation on November 5, with testnet activation set for October 6 and roughly two weeks of performance and stability checks before an October 20 decision on the mainnet upgrade and its activation block height. A dated activation roadmap shifts ZEC from open-ended protocol debate to an event-driven timeline, the kind of catalyst that typically pulls speculative flow into privacy-coin names and raises ZEC's realized volatility versus BTC into early November. The key checkpoint is the October 20 confirmation of the activation block height; a delay or contested upgrade decision would remove the near-term catalyst and expose ZEC to unwinding of pre-event positioning.