Live countdown to the next Zcash halving, when new ZEC issuance is cut in half.
The halving is scheduled by block height, not by date — this countdown updates with every block, straight from the Zcash chain.
Estimated halving date: November 27, 2028
ZEC per block, now → after the halving
Total block subsidy; a portion funds the dev fund lockbox
Gold steps: new ZEC issued per day, halving by epoch. White curve: total ZEC supply approaching the fixed 21 million cap — the same hard cap as Bitcoin.
| Event | Block | Date | Reward after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zcash launch | 0 | 28 Oct 2016 | 12.5 ZEC |
| 1st halving | 1,046,400 | 18 Nov 2020 | 3.125 ZEC |
| 2nd halving | 2,726,400 | 23 Nov 2024 | 1.5625 ZEC |
| 3rd halving ← next | 4,406,400 | ~Nov 2028 (est.) | 0.78125 ZEC |
| 4th halving | 6,086,400 | ~Nov 2032 (est.) | 0.390625 ZEC |
Future dates are estimates from average block time and update automatically. The Blossom upgrade (2019) halved the block target time from 150s to 75s and the per-block reward with it — total issuance per day was unchanged, so it is not a halving.
Zcash has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million ZEC — the same hard cap as Bitcoin. New ZEC enters circulation as a block reward paid with every block, and roughly every four years that reward is cut in half. This is the Zcash halving. Each halving reduces the flow of new ZEC, lowering Zcash's inflation rate and increasing its scarcity, until the final ZEC is issued.
The halving is enforced by the protocol itself. It happens at a specific block height, not on a calendar date — which is why the countdown above is estimated from the chain's measured average block time and updates with every block.
The next Zcash halving occurs at block 4,406,400. The live countdown at the top of this page shows the current best estimate of the date, recalculated continuously from real block production. Because Zcash targets a new block every 75 seconds, the estimate can drift slightly as actual block times vary.
The full schedule, including future halvings, is in the table above — future dates update automatically as blocks are mined.
One quirk: the Blossom upgrade in December 2019 halved Zcash's target block time from 150 seconds to 75 seconds, and halved the per-block reward at the same time so that total issuance per day was unchanged. Blossom changed the numbers but not the emission rate — so it is not a halving. Only events that cut the daily issuance rate in half count, which is why Zcash's halving heights look irregular compared to Bitcoin's clean 210,000-block intervals.
The mechanism is identical — Zcash launched in 2016 as a Bitcoin-style fixed-supply, proof-of-work chain, and its 21 million cap and four-year halving cycle deliberately mirror Bitcoin's monetary design. The differences are practical: Zcash blocks arrive every 75 seconds rather than every ten minutes, so halvings land at much larger block heights, and Zcash's halvings fall in November where Bitcoin's recent halvings have landed in spring. Zcash is sometimes described as encrypted Bitcoin: the same scarcity model, with zero-knowledge privacy on top. For how the two assets compare in market terms, see Zcash Chasing Down Bitcoin.
A halving cuts the supply of new ZEC reaching the market each day. With steady or growing demand, a reduced flow of new coins is structurally supportive of price — this is the core of the scarcity thesis behind every fixed-supply asset. Historically, Bitcoin's largest bull markets have followed its halvings, though cause and effect are debated and past performance guarantees nothing. Zcash's own history through its halvings is on the Zcash Price History page.
Miner revenue per block halves overnight, which raises the cost-efficiency bar for mining hardware and electricity. In practice, miners anticipate halvings well in advance and price them in; Zcash's previous halvings passed without disruption to network security. A portion of each block reward also funds Zcash's development fund, which halves alongside the miner share.
The most recent Zcash halving took place on 23 November 2024, at block 2,726,400, cutting the block reward from 3.125 to 1.5625 ZEC.
Every 1,680,000 blocks — approximately every four years at Zcash's 75-second target block time.
0.78125 ZEC per block, half of the current 1.5625 ZEC.
Halvings continue until the block reward approaches zero and the full 21 million ZEC supply is issued — the same long asymptotic schedule as Bitcoin. The reward halves each cycle, so the overwhelming majority of all ZEC will be in circulation within the next few halvings.
No — the halving block height is exact, but the date is an estimate based on average block production. The countdown above recalculates continuously and becomes more precise as the halving approaches.