Zcash holders to vote on removing 50,000 ZEC, worth approximately $50 million, from the community funding treasury.
November 12 — Zcash holders and community representatives will vote from November 16 to 30 on a proposal to remove 50,000 ZEC from the Community Grants Treasury (ZCG). The proposal was co-drafted by Zcash co-founders Sean Bowe, Zooko Wilcox, and Jason McGee, and was merged into the specification repository on Wednesday.
According to the October treasury snapshot cited in the proposal, ZCG holds 91,453 ZEC, and the amount proposed for removal accounts for approximately 55% of its holdings. If the proposal passes and is activated in a network upgrade, ZCG will need to move the 50,000 ZEC out of circulation within 30 days, with the corresponding value credited to the Network Sustainability Mechanism and gradually returned through future block rewards.
In addition, the proposal plans to stop allocating 8% of currently newly issued ZEC to ZCG and redirect this portion to a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund, which will continue to accumulate until Zcash's next halving. Before separate fund withdrawal rules are adopted, the funds in this fund cannot be spent temporarily. ZCG can still use the remaining treasury funds to continue issuing development grants, while the independent 12% holder-controlled fund remains unaffected.
The proposal states that, based on the October treasury snapshot, a ZEC price of $1,300, and spending conditions in the first half of 2026, ZCG's existing funds can cover approximately 13 years of spending; after removing 50,000 ZEC, the remaining funds are expected to cover approximately 6 years. Previously, ZCG proposed redirecting approximately 98,000 ZEC from existing assets and future income to miner rewards, but abandoned the plan on November 3 after community criticism. This new proposal still requires community support and must pass a network upgrade before implementation. The activation block height has not yet been determined, and no reference implementation has been provided.