Value pools
Where ZEC lives right now
4.35M ZEC — 25.8% of all ZEC — is currently shielded across Zcash's four active privacy pools, worth $2.12B at today's price. This page tracks every value pool live: what it is, whether it is open, closing, or sealed, and how ZEC flows across pool boundaries.
- Transparent · 12.46M ZEC
- Sprout · 22,637 ZEC
- Sapling · 541K ZEC
- Orchard · 2.85M ZEC
- Ironwood · 935K ZEC
- Lockbox · 54,137 ZEC
Transparent pool
OpenBitcoin-style UTXOs — public addresses, amounts, and history.
What this pool is
Bitcoin-style UTXOs with public addresses, amounts, and history. Most exchange and mining flows land here first. Anything in this pool is fully traceable on-chain.
Sprout
ClosingThe original 2016 shielded pool — exit-only for years.
What this pool is
Zcash's original 2016 shielded pool, built on the first-generation zk-SNARK circuit. It has been closed to new deposits for years and its remaining balance can only exit via the turnstile into newer pools.
Sapling
OpenThe 2018 pool that made shielded mobile wallets possible.
What this pool is
The 2018-era shielded pool that made shielded transactions fast enough for mobile wallets. Still open and widely supported, though modern wallets prefer newer pools.
Orchard
Sealed (draining)Sealed by NU6.3 — its balance now only drains into Ironwood.
What this pool is
The Halo-2 based pool that carried most shielded adoption since 2022. NU6.3 (Ironwood, July 28 2026) sealed Orchard to new shielded transactions: its balance can now only migrate out, into the Ironwood pool.
Ironwood
Open (NU6.3)Zcash's newest pool — all new shielded activity lands here.
What this pool is
Zcash's fifth and newest shielded pool, activated with NU6.3 at block 3,428,143 on July 28 2026. New shielded activity lands here, and the sealed Orchard pool is migrating into it.
Lockbox
AccruingNot a privacy pool: the protocol's development fund.
What this pool is
Not a privacy pool: a protocol-level development fund that accrues 0.1875 ZEC per block (12% of the block subsidy under NU6). Its balance sits outside circulation until governance disburses it.
Boundary flows
Shield and deshield flows — last 30 days
Every day ZEC crosses the transparent/shielded boundary in both directions. Over the last 24h: 33,227 ZEC shielded, 8,342 ZEC deshielded — a net of +24,885 ZEC into the shielded pools.
Honesty
What ZecStats can and cannot see
Shielded-to-shielded transfers are invisible by design.
Why / details
No explorer, ZecStats included, can see amounts or addresses inside a shielded pool. What the chain does publish is each pool's total balance (a consensus "value pool") and the flows across pool boundaries — shielding, deshielding, and turnstile migrations.
Everything on this page is built from observable pool boundaries.
Why / details
Shielding (t → z), deshielding (z → t), and turnstile migrations are public facts, and those are exactly what this page reports. Nothing here estimates private activity — what the chain does not publish, this site does not invent.
Related: the Ironwood migration tracker (Orchard → Ironwood, live), the halving countdown, and how ZecStats measures.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How much ZEC is shielded?
4.35M ZEC — about 25.8% of total supply — currently sits in Zcash's shielded pools (Sprout, Sapling, Orchard, and Ironwood). The shielded share peaked near 30% during the 2025-2026 privacy narrative and updates live on this page.
What is a shielded pool?
A shielded pool is a portion of the ZEC supply protected by zero-knowledge proofs: addresses, amounts, and transaction graphs inside the pool are encrypted on-chain. Only the pool's total balance is publicly known, tracked by consensus as a 'value pool'.
Why does Zcash have five shielded pools?
Each pool corresponds to a generation of proving system: Sprout (2016), Sapling (2018), Orchard (2022), and Ironwood (2026). Upgrading cryptography requires a new pool; funds move between pools through the turnstile, which publicly reveals pool-to-pool amounts so the total supply stays auditable.
Is shielded ZEC traceable?
Shielded-to-shielded transfers are invisible by design — no amounts, no addresses. What IS visible are pool boundaries: shielding (t → z), deshielding (z → t), and turnstile migrations between pools. ZecStats reports exactly those boundary flows and pool balance changes, and nothing more, because nothing more is observable.
What is the lockbox?
The lockbox is a protocol development fund, not a privacy pool. It accrues 0.1875 ZEC per block (12% of the subsidy under NU6) and currently holds 54,137 ZEC. The remaining subsidy goes 80% to miners and 8% to Zcash Community Grants.
What happened to the Sprout pool?
Sprout is closing: it has been shut to new deposits for years and only 22,637 ZEC remains, exiting through the turnstile. Its first-generation circuit is retired.