ZEC Price Eyes Rally to $600 Ahead of ZCash Ironwood Upgrade

ZEC, the native cryptocurrency of privacy blockchain network ZCash, saw a strong boost in its price, surging past $500 as of press time. Investors are turning bullish ahead of the ZCash Ironwood upgrade scheduled for this month on July 28. Market experts believe the ZEC price rally will continue to $600, and further beyond to $800.

ZCash Ironwood Network Upgrade to Go Live Soon

Privacy blockchain network ZCash will activate its Ironwood network upgrade this month on July 28. The upgrade will introduce a fix for the “infinity” bug discovered in May within Orchard, the blockchain’s primary shielded transaction pool.

In addition, the Ironwood upgrade will permanently close the existing Orchard pool, prevent new transactions from entering it, and launch a new private transaction pool. Funds exiting Orchard will be required to pass through an accounting checkpoint before entering Ironwood. This process will help to determine whether the vulnerability was ever exploited to create counterfeit ZEC tokens.

Earlier, Shielded Labs proposed delaying the upgrade. They warned that exchanges, mining pools, wallets, and other ecosystem participants won’t get enough time for a late July mainnet deployment.

Shielded Labs previously said the Ironwood upgrade could also provide evidence on whether the Orchard vulnerability had ever been exploited. They noted:

“As users migrate funds from the existing Orchard pool to the new pool, any hypothetical counterfeiter faces a choice: attempt to move counterfeit funds and risk exposing their existence, or leave them behind and risk being unable to move them in the future.”

What Happens to ZEC Price Next, Pump or Dump?

ZEC price is showing strength on the daily and weekly charts, with 7% and 12% upside, respectively. Market expert Kamran Ashghar pointed out that ZEC has broken out of a multi-month falling wedge.

According to the analyst, ZEC surged nearly 17% in a single trading session following months of price compression. As per the image below, this breakout above the wedge establishes a new market structure.

Ashghar said traders are now watching the next major resistance levels to determine whether the breakout can be sustained. He added that the latest move could mark the beginning of a broader trend reversal for Zcash.

Another market analyst, Third Eye, warned that Zcash has once again reached a key descending trendline that previously triggered a sharp price decline.

According to the analyst, the last rejection from the same technical resistance led to a drop of several hundred dollars in ZEC’s price. With the token now retesting that level, Third Eye said a similar move could unfold if history repeats.

The analyst identified a downside target range of $420, $360, and $220, while placing a stop loss at $560.70. Third Eye suggested that a rejection from the current resistance zone could present a potential short trading opportunity.