Zcash developers are targeting January 2027 to roll out quantum-resistant payment support, while the Zcash price (ZEC) trades near $1,240 after a steep weekly decline. The planned changes concentrate on transparent transactions, and shielded payments still require separate protection against future attacks.

Zakura engineer Roman Akhtariev outlined the schedule in an engineering update. Developers intend to add instructions that verify hash-based signatures for future payments. January remains a development target, not a confirmed mainnet activation date. Interim engineering updates are the checkpoints that will show whether that schedule holds.

On the market side, the Zcash price recovered from Thursday's selloff on October 9. ZEC nevertheless below its September peak near $1,700, and the $1,300 area marked its next technical test.

How Will Zcash Protect Transparent Transactions?

Spending from a transparent payment requires a cryptographic signature. Current technology relies on elliptic curve-based cryptography, which is secure against ordinary computing. Future quantum machines would present another kind of threat, with the ability to decode private keys. The work parallels a broader industry shift: NIST finalized its first post-quantum cryptography standards in August 2024, including a hash-based signature scheme, giving developers standardized reference points for upgrades of this kind.

The Zakura proposal includes hash-based signature verification and one-time signatures such as Winternitz One-Time Signatures, which rest on different cryptographic assumptions. This does not mean Zcash has achieved full resistance to quantum attacks. Future quantum attacks could put exposed public keys at risk, and the suggested instructions are meant to address such future threats — not any real attacks on Zcash wallets.

The proposal applies to most of the ZEC supply. ZecStats data from October 9 (zecstats.org) indicated 11.96 million ZEC in transparent wallets, or 70.4% of the total 16.98 million ZEC in circulation, with another 4.95 million ZEC held in shielded pools.

Ordinary transparent addresses hide their public keys behind hashes. Spending from any transparent address exposes its public key, and with it all coins controlled through that key. Creating new addresses minimizes the threat, because those keys are not yet known.

Akhtariev noted that extended public keys and viewing information should also be guarded against exposure, since they could reveal even more wallet keys regardless of address rotation. In other words, rotating addresses alone is not a sufficient protective measure.

Zcash introduced the Ironwood upgrade on July 28, as documented by Shielded Labs. The version included a new shielded pool and supply verification features, along with other instructions intended to support future quantum recovery.

Why Is Zakura Adding Private Wallet Queries?

Rotating addresses poses another challenge for wallets. Standard balance checking allows the server to learn which addresses are being requested. Zakura's private information retrieval (PIR) system conceals the requested data from the server.

According to Akhtariev, wallets use this method to restore old transaction history. Restoring that history may be necessary even in the case of an empty address, and PIR makes it possible without disclosing any information about the addresses involved.

An experimental version is available through the Private Queries feature in the Vizor wallet. Transactions made with transparent payments remain visible on-chain. Whether other wallets adopt the Private Queries approach is one of the development threads to follow alongside the 2027 target.

Can the Zcash Price Recover Above $1,300?

The Zcash price traded close to $1,240 on October 9 after falling near $1,180. CoinGecko data showed a 2.5% daily gain at the recorded snapshot, although the token remained more than 12% lower on a weekly basis.

On the daily chart, ZEC was trading at $1,237.39, below the nine-day simple moving average of $1,305.05, which served as a resistance level. The price also remained below a series of lower highs.

Binance, for its part, reported $1.5 billion in daily trading volume and a market capitalization of $20.8 billion on October 9, per its Zcash page. The figures represented trading activity during the Zcash price recovery period.

According to crypto analyst Trader Symba, three areas of interest stood at 1,300–1,330, 1,350–1,370, and $1,430, with the latter two marking the higher targets. The areas were projections, not guarantees. Symba further outlined 1,195–1,200, then $1,115, and 1,040–1,050 as the areas below the market. In addition, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator on the chart printed a negative histogram of -46.32.

Analyst More Crypto Online described the fall as a fourth-wave correction under Elliott Wave analysis, explaining that confirmation would come with a breakout above the preceding high. The analyst wrote on X on October 9, 2026:

$ZEC ZEC is in a wave 4 pullback. A break above the last high confirms the low. Elliott Wave Analysis #ZEC pic.twitter.com/NENveIsEl9

— More Crypto Online (@Morecryptoonl) October 9, 2026

At the moment, the Zcash price remains below the recovery areas. The quantum roadmap details future work on the security of the network, but there is no proof linking the plan to ZEC's price recovery.

This article contains market analysis and price predictions. These are not guarantees. Crypto markets are volatile. DYOR. Not financial advice.