Value pools
Where ZEC lives right now
4.97M ZEC — 29.2% of all ZEC — is currently shielded across Zcash's four active privacy pools, worth $6.23B 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 · 11.97M ZEC
- Sprout · 13,170 ZEC
- Sapling · 429K ZEC
- Orchard · 341K ZEC
- Ironwood · 4.19M ZEC
- Lockbox · 73,570 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 (migrating)Sealed by NU6.3 — its balance now only migrates to 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.
Sources quote wildly different shielded percentages — the figure depends on whether you measure supply or transactions, which pools you count, and when the snapshot was taken. Here is why they disagree, and what each figure actually measures.
Boundary flows
Shield and deshield flows — last 30 days
Every day ZEC crosses the transparent/shielded boundary in both directions. Over the last 24h: 8,480 ZEC shielded, 3,609 ZEC deshielded — a net of +4,872 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: why sources disagree on the shielded percentage, the Ironwood migration tracker (Orchard → Ironwood, live) and its reconciled figures, the sealed Orchard pool, the halving countdown, historical CSV downloads, and how ZecStats measures.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How much ZEC is shielded?
4.97M ZEC — about 29.2% 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 73,570 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 13,170 ZEC remains, exiting through the turnstile. Its first-generation circuit is retired.
Reader reference
Orchard receivers and Ironwood payments
Can an older receiver receive Ironwood funds?
Draft ZIP 326 distinguishes the Orchard protocol from the Orchard pool: a receiver is scoped to the protocol, not to one pool. Its receiving guidance says an Orchard-protocol receiver exposed before NU6.3 can receive Ironwood-pool funds after NU6.3. The Orchard name on a receiver therefore does not mean a new payment must enter the old Orchard pool.
Compatibility is not a wallet-support guarantee
ZIP 326 says a wallet that supports NU6.3 will scan for those Ironwood funds. It treats the sender's choice to route a payment into Ironwood as a separate wallet concern, outside that document's receiving guidance. This Draft specification does not verify support in any particular wallet or version. Receiver compatibility and the pool holding a balance are different questions; the balances on this dashboard cannot confirm that a particular wallet can receive or spend a payment.
Continue exploring: ironwood · orchard pool