Zcash developers propose Ironwood shielded pool to address counterfeit ZEC concerns

Zcash developers are proposing a new shielded pool called Ironwood after a recently patched bug raised concerns about whether counterfeit ZEC could have entered circulation unnoticed. The Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) said Saturday that it is working with Tachyon, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation and Shielded Labs on the proposed network upgrade, which would add formal verification and independent audits to the Orchard protocol, a privacy system that lets users move ZEC without revealing transaction details. The proposal would close the current Orchard pool to new deposits and internal transactions, requiring funds to pass through a "turnstile," which serves as an accounting checkpoint, before entering Ironwood.

The Zcash Foundation said Wednesday that auditors discovered a vulnerability in the Orchard shielded pool. Developers said there was no evidence that user funds were affected or that Zcash's total supply changed. Auditors at Shielded Labs said the vulnerability could have allowed attackers to create an infinite amount of counterfeit ZEC within Orchard without detection.

In other developments, Galaxy Digital on Friday lowered its odds of the Senate passing its version of the CLARITY Act before the end of the year, saying that the window for lawmakers to act on the bill is fast closing. "On May 22, we raised our estimate of the probability that the CLARITY Act becomes law in 2026 to 75%, up from the 55% we published the morning of May 14's Senate Banking markup," Galaxy's head of research Alex Thorn said. "We are now lowering that estimate to 60%."

Thorn said the bill must pass the Senate before a month-long August recess starting in late July, as "after that, the window effectively closes." He added that major legislation has historically not moved in the lead-up to the midterm elections due to lawmakers campaigning. "For a 60-vote bill that still needs floor debate, an amendment process, reconciliation with the Senate Agriculture text, and then House action on the changes, Majority Leader [John] Thune realistically needs to schedule floor time at some point in July," Thorn said. "Anything later and the procedural steps do not fit before the recess," he added.

Separately, crypto exchange Kraken announced that SpaceX will be the first company offered through its xStocks IPO Access program, allowing eligible users in more than 110 markets to participate in the highly anticipated public offering through tokenized equity instruments. Investors who receive an allocation will be issued SPCXx, a tokenized representation tied to shares in SpaceX, marking the first offering of its kind through the program.