Daily pool data shows Sprout holders moved more than 300 ZEC out in a September rush, then almost stopped. The last withdrawal was on October 19. Unless someone acts in the next few days, nearly all of what remains will be unspendable at block 3,543,405. Most coverage of Zcash's upcoming Sprout freeze quotes the same figure, about 22,000 ZEC. That number is accurate, but it is a single snapshot. It doesn't show whether the people who own those coins are doing anything about the deadline. We checked the pool every day, and the answer so far is no. According to ZecStats' daily value-pool records, Sprout has held exactly 22,263.34162335 ZEC since October 19. That is 11 straight days, and more than 12,000 blocks, without a single zatoshi leaving the pool. Our October 25 piece recorded the drop from 22,309 ZEC to 22,263 ZEC. Since then the balance hasn't moved. What The Daily Numbers Show ZecStats publishes a daily CSV of every Zcash value pool, using the last block of each UTC day. Its figures follow the valuePools field that a full node returns through the getblockchaininfo call. The archive starts on July 30, 2026, and gives a 92-day picture of the Sprout pool. Across those 92 days, about 374 ZEC , or 1.65% of the pool, left Sprout. That is an average of roughly 4 ZEC a day . The average hides the real pattern, though: the pool moved on only 15 of the 92 days . A September Rush, Then Almost Nothing Most of the withdrawals came in a few large transfers in September: September 16: 99.998 ZEC left the pool. September 23: 49.09 ZEC left. September 25: 112.41 ZEC left, the largest single day in the record. Together with smaller moves on August 31, September 17 and September 19, the 30 days to September 29 saw 310.5 ZEC leave Sprout. That is about 10 ZEC a day. October was much quieter. Apart from one withdrawal of 46.05 ZEC on October 19, the month's activity was small change: 0.0036 ZEC on October 2 1.33 ZEC on October 6 0.05 ZEC on October 18 Since October 19, there has been no movement at all. At September's pace, about 70 ZEC more would leave before activation. At October's pace, it would be well under 15 ZEC. On the last 11 days' pace, the answer is zero. What Changes At Block 3,543,405 The deadline is set in ZIP 259, which defines how the NU7 network upgrade is deployed. It sets the mainnet activation height at 3,543,405 . NU7 does not introduce a new transaction format. Instead, after activation, version 4 transactions become invalid , while versions 5 and 6 remain valid. Sprout's design is the problem. As ZIP 259 puts it: "Because Sprout transfers can only be represented by version 4 transactions, funds remaining in the Sprout pool become unspendable." The coins would not be destroyed, and NU7 does not change Zcash's supply cap. They would simply be stuck in a pool that no valid transaction can spend from. Today the stranded amount would be 22,263 ZEC , about 0.13% of the roughly 17.01 million ZEC in circulation. The rest of the upgrade is larger: block target spacing drops from 75 seconds to 25 seconds new per-pool and global limits on shielded actions the Network Sustainability Mechanism removal of 60% of transaction fees from circulation ZIP 259 also skips Zcash's usual three-month gap between the first supporting software release and activation. Operators running unsupported software could stay online and follow a pre-NU7 chain. Why The Countdown Lands Late On November 5 As of ZecStats' latest update on October 30 at 13:09 UTC, the chain was at block 3,535,877 . That leaves 7,528 blocks until activation. In October, the network averaged about 1,147 blocks a day , or one roughly every 75.3 seconds. At that rate, block 3,543,405 arrives around 02:00–03:00 UTC on November 6 . That is the evening of November 5 in the Americas and the early hours of November 6 in Europe and Africa. Small changes in block times could move that window by a few hours. Holders who plan to move funds on the final day risk missing the cutoff. Who Still Has Time To Move In practice, getting funds out of Sprout means sending a version 4 transaction that moves them into a newer pool before activation. Users need software that can still build Sprout transactions and a synced node or wallet that recognizes their old notes. The September withdrawals show that some holders are still paying attention. Several were round amounts, such as 99.998 ZEC, which is consistent with someone moving 100 ZEC and paying a fee. The 11-day pause since October 19 suggests something else: most of the remaining 22,263 ZEC may belong to keys that are lost, forgotten or no longer used. That has been part of the debate about Sprout for years. A pool that has been shrinking slowly since Zcash's early days is now on a fixed timetable. The daily data indicates that most of its remaining balance is not being moved. Why A Static Figure Misses The Story Every report that cites "about 22,000 ZEC at risk" is technically correct. The more useful figure for anyone tracking the upgrade is the rate of change, and right now that rate is zero. The useful thing to watch over the next week is whether the Sprout line in ZecStats' daily data moves again before block 3,543,405. If it doesn't, Zcash will activate NU7 with about 22,263 ZEC permanently locked in its first shielded pool. That would be one of the largest deliberate freezes of user funds by any major blockchain upgrade, and nearly all of it would be coins whose owners did not move them in time. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on X @nulltxnews
