02 RECORD — 2013 to 2026 - one spine - filter by strand

From Zerocash to the ETF

Launch, funding, governance, leadership, exploits, upgrades, market and the promotion network on one axis. The governance strand alone runs Founders' Reward to ZIP 1014 to ZIP 1015 to ZIP 1016 to the January 2026 walkout to a VC-funded lab whose engineers accounted for roughly 82 per cent of merged protocol and wallet repository changes in Ironwood. Dates are printed as the record states them: a row the sources date only to a month says so rather than borrowing a day from its sort key.

shielded share of supply — 2018 to 2026

Shielded share of ZEC supply, 2018 to 2026
Shielded share of ZEC supply, by reading date
DateShare of supplySource note
Aug 20183.6 per centKappos et al.'s own measurement, in the paper that also found 0.3 per cent of transactions fully private
Aug 20217.4 per centZECStats' five-years-ago baseline
Early 20248 per cent-
Aug 20249 per centForbes gives it as about 9 per cent, 1.48M of 16.3M ZEC
Start of 202511 per cent-
Oct 202518 per cent-
Nov 202523 per cent-
May 202630 per centthe peak, about 5M ZEC, and the only time the shielded share has reached 30 per cent
2026-08-22 (block 3,456,227)26 to 26.8 per centCipherScan at block 3,456,227 gives 26.0 percent shielded; ZECStats reads 26.8 percent. Cite the range, roughly 26 to 27 percent. Coin Metrics adds that the growth was driven primarily by shielding and deshielding activity, and that fully shielded transfers remain a small share.

Nine and a half years after mainnet, the shielded share peaked at 30 per cent and fell back. The final reading is a band because its two sources disagree: CipherScan reads 26 per cent and ZECStats 26.8 per cent on the same day. The decline from the May 2026 peak spans the Orchard disclosure and the forced Ironwood migration; the corpus flags the fall and declines to attribute a cause, and so does this chart.

shielded-sharecite
claim
shielded-share
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
med
  1. Kappos, Yousaf, Maller, Meiklejohn — An Empirical Analysis of Anonymity in Zcash, USENIX Security 2018 USENIX · accessed 2026-08-22
  2. ZEC Stats (zecstats.com) ZEC Stats · accessed 2026-08-22
  3. crypto.news — Why 30% of Zcash supply is in the shielded pool (29 May 2026) crypto.news · 2026-05-29 · accessed 2026-08-22
  4. Forbes — How Satoshi Collaborator Zooko Wilcox Aims to Revive His Zombie Blockchain (8 Aug 2024) Forbes · 2025-03-12 · accessed 2026-08-22
  5. Coin Metrics, State of the Network #338 Coin Metrics · 2025-11-08 · accessed 2026-08-22
  6. CipherScan — Ironwood migration tracker CipherScan · 2026-08-22 · accessed 2026-08-22
  7. CoinGecko — Zcash CoinGecko · accessed 2026-08-22
  8. Coinglass ZEC derivatives coinglass.com · accessed 2026-08-22
C8
C8cite
claim
C8
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. The Block — Zcash developers quit, form new company (7 Jan 2026) The Block · 2026-01-07 · accessed 2026-08-22
  2. CoinDesk — ZODL raises $25M (9 Mar 2026) CoinDesk · 2026-03-09 · accessed 2026-08-22
  3. Draft ecc-zbloc (Obsolete) Zcash Improvement Proposals · accessed 2026-08-22
the 82 per cent figure, its scope and its confidence

124 dated entries, 9 strands. Showing the 5 launch rows; the year numerals stay, so a strand's silent years remain visible.

all124exploit24governance16funding9leadership8protocol22market12regulatory8network20launch5
2013
2013year onlylaunchZerocoin protocol by Johns Hopkins researchers Zerocoin protocol — Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Christina Garman (Johns Hopkins).T2013-01-01
T2013-01-01cite
claim
T2013-01-01
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. Wikipedia — Zcash Wikipedia · accessed 2026-08-22
2014
May 2014month onlylaunchZerocash peer-reviewed paper published at IEEE S&P Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin — Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, Garman, Green, Miers, Tromer, Virza — IEEE S&P (Oakland) 2014.T2014-05-01
T2014-05-01cite
claim
T2014-05-01
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, Garman, Green, Miers, Tromer, Virza — Zerocash, IEEE S&P 2014 zerocash-project.org · accessed 2026-08-22
  2. eprint 2014/349 IACR ePrint · accessed 2026-08-22
2015
2015year onlylaunchZerocoin Electric Coin Company founded Zerocoin Electric Coin Company founded; Zooko Wilcox CEO.T2015-01-01
T2015-01-01cite
claim
T2015-01-01
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. Wikipedia — Zcash Wikipedia · accessed 2026-08-22
2016
23 Oct 2016launchThe Ceremony — Sprout parameter generation MPC The Ceremony — Sprout parameter generation MPC, six participants, six locations.T2016-10-23
T2016-10-23cite
claim
T2016-10-23
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. ECC — The Design of the Ceremony Electric Coin Company · accessed 2026-08-22
28 Oct 2016launch / marketMainnet launch with extreme price volatility Mainnet launch. Slow-start mining. Poloniex prints 1 ZEC ≈ 3,300 BTC (>2 M) intraday, then 48 BTC the same day; BitMEX futures hit 10 BTC (6,864). CoinGecko records the all-time high of 3,191.93 on this date.T2016-10-28
T2016-10-28cite
claim
T2016-10-28
last verified
2026-08-22
confidence
high
  1. CoinDesk — Bitcoin Prices Roar Past $700 But Zcash Steals the Show (29 Oct 2016) CoinDesk · 2016-10-29 · accessed 2026-08-22
  2. CoinGecko — Zcash CoinGecko · accessed 2026-08-22
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Timeline - ZCashReveal