Zcash has a hard cap of 21 million ZEC. On October 13, 2026, at block 3,516,898, our tracker showed 16,984,786.1030 ZEC in existence, which leaves about 4.01 million ZEC still to be issued, released slowly through the halving schedule. Published supply numbers can differ by a few hundred ZEC because sources count slightly different things.
Snapshot, October 13, 2026
Figures come from our own trackers, Shielded Supply and open data, which read the Zcash blockchain through an RPC provider, and from our own arithmetic on the protocol specification's formulas. They change every block; the live pages are the reference. We did not verify any third-party supply figure and do not compare ours with theirs.
Three numbers: cap, issued and circulating
- Maximum supply: 21,000,000 ZEC. The protocol specification defines the constant MAX_MONEY as 2.1·10^15 zatoshi (1 ZEC is 10^8 zatoshi) and states a consensus rule: if the total issued supply would exceed MAX_MONEY after a block, all nodes must reject that block. Our max supply entry explains the idea.
- Issued supply: 16,984,786.1030 ZEC at block 3,516,898. This is the sum of every value pool the chain tracks. It is the closest thing to "how many ZEC exist".
- Circulating supply has no single definition. It usually means issued supply minus coins considered unavailable, and sources disagree about which coins those are. See our circulating supply entry and the section below on why numbers differ.
Where the issued coins sit
| Pool on October 13, 2026 | ZEC | Share of supply |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent | 11,953,980.9925 | 70.38 % |
| Shielded (Sprout, Sapling, Orchard, Ironwood) | 4,961,336.5481 | 29.21 % |
| Deferred development fund lockbox | 69,468.5625 | 0.41 % |
| Total issued | 16,984,786.1030 | 100 % |
Values are rounded to four decimals, so the rows can differ from the total in the last digit. The lockbox is a reserve funded from the block subsidy. Its coins are issued but sit outside user wallets. For what the shielded share does and does not mean, read how much of Zcash is shielded.
How the rest is released: the halving schedule
The block subsidy started at 12.5 ZEC and has been cut in half at each halving. The protocol specification gives the formula: a slow start over the first 20,000 blocks, then the maximum subsidy of 1.25·10^9 zatoshi divided by 2 to the power of the halving number, with the amount per block halved again once from Blossom (block 653,600) because blocks became twice as frequent.
- First halving: block 1,046,400 (November 18, 2020), subsidy 3.125 ZEC.
- Second halving: block 2,726,400 (November 23, 2024), subsidy 1.5625 ZEC, where it stands today.
- Third halving: block 4,406,400 under today's rules with 75-second blocks, subsidy 0.78125 ZEC. NU7 would change block timing, so this height is not a prediction; see the halving guide and the live halving countdown.
At 1.5625 ZEC per block and a 75-second target, about 1,152 blocks a day add roughly 1,800 ZEC per day, about 657,000 ZEC a year, or about 3.9 % of today's supply. This is our arithmetic, and it falls with each halving. Adding up the whole schedule with the specification's formulas (rounding each block down, as the formula does) gives 20,999,999.8152 ZEC, a hair under the cap.
Why supply numbers differ by a few hundred ZEC
We added up the schedule through block 3,516,898 and got 16,985,154.6875 ZEC. The chain's pools hold 16,984,786.1030 ZEC. The gap is 368.5844552 ZEC. That is the same number ZIP 237 gives as its Mainnet initial value for the sustainability mechanism, which it defines as the difference between scheduled issuance and the chain value pool totals, caused by block subsidy and fees that coinbase transactions left unclaimed before NU6 (ZIP 237 is a Draft). In other words, a small amount that the schedule allowed was never created. Our reading: the gap has not changed since, which also suggests that none of the proposed fee removal is active yet.
Other reasons two sources can both be right:
- Scheduled vs issued. The formula above counts what the rules allow; the pools count what exists.
- The lockbox. Some sources may include it in circulating supply and some may not.
- The moment. A block arrives about every 75 seconds, so a number read an hour apart differs by dozens of ZEC.
- Definition of circulating. There is no consensus rule for it.
We did not verify any third-party figure. Check a source's definition and date before comparing.
How to check it yourself
- Read the pool balances and the date on Shielded Supply and download the daily files from our open data page.
- For one block or transaction, use the Zcash Explorer; our explorer guide shows what it can and cannot display.
- To see where coins sit between transparent and shielded pools, see shielded vs transparent transactions.
- For why ZEC's price moves, which supply alone does not explain, see what drives the price of Zcash.
Sources and method
- Zcash Protocol Specification, version v2026.7.0-309 [NU6.2], dated October 14, 2026: section 5.3 constants (MAX_MONEY, MaxBlockSubsidy, SlowStartInterval, PreBlossomHalvingInterval, BlossomActivationHeight), section 7.8 block subsidy formulas, and section 4.17 "Chain Value Pool Balances" with the consensus rule on total issued supply; read October 14, 2026.
- ZIP 237, "NSM: Halving-Preserving Issuance" (Draft), INITIAL_NSM_VALUE_BALANCE, read October 14, 2026.
- Our trackers: pool balances and total supply from the daily Shielded Supply file for October 13, 2026 (block 3,516,898); schedule totals are our own calculation from the specification's formulas.
- See also the Zcash privacy hub. New guides first appear in the ZecZcash Telegram channel.