ZEC climbed to roughly an eight-year high on Aug. 25, briefly reaching $888, its highest level since 2018, according to market data from HTX. The token was still trading near $844 at the time of the report, with weekly gains topping 70%. At the same time, the Zcash community is set to begin an around 18-day token holder vote on the scope of the upcoming NU7 network upgrade. The voting process starts from Aug. 24, which corresponds to early Aug. 25 in Beijing time, and will run until 19:00 UTC on Sept. 14. Eligibility is based on a snapshot expected at 19:00 UTC on Aug. 24, around mainnet block height 3,459,350. Voting power only counts spendable, shielded ZEC held in the Ironwood pool at the time of the snapshot. The minimum participation threshold is 1 million ZEC. The vote will be conducted privately through supported wallets including Zodl, Vizor, Zkool, and Keystone hardware wallets. Only aggregated results will be published, with no disclosure of individual voting details. The stated goal is to collect token holder views on the upgrade scope for reference by the community and developers.

ZEC briefly climbed to $888 on Gate data, marking its highest price since 2018 and what ChainCatcher described as an roughly eight-year high. The token was still trading near $844 at the time of the update, with weekly gains of more than 70%. At the same time, the Zcash community is set to begin a token-holder vote on the scope of the upcoming NU7 upgrade. The vote opens on Aug. 25 and runs until 19:00 UTC on Sept. 14, lasting about 18 days. A minimum of 1 million ZEC is required for participation. Voting power will be determined by a snapshot expected at 19:00 UTC on the 24th, around mainnet block height 3,459,350. Eligible balances include spendable, shielded ZEC held in the Ironwood pool. Voting will take place privately through supported wallets, and only aggregated results will be released.

Bitcoin ripped more than 26% last week, touching $79,500 on Aug. 21 and breaking above its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2025. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $1.918 billion last week, while spot Ether ETFs drew $697 million. Coinbase’s Bitcoin premium index turned positive at 0.0032%, ending a 97-day negative streak, and Polymarket now puts the odds of BTC reaching $90,000 before 2027 at about 48%. Ether outperformed with a weekly gain of nearly 30%, but on-chain deleveraging signals remained visible.

The coming week brings a packed schedule for crypto markets and macro watchers, with token unlocks, exchange actions, protocol upgrades and key US economic releases all on the calendar. Humanity Protocol is set to unlock about 266 million H tokens on Aug. 25 Beijing time, while Huma Finance will unlock roughly 459 million HUMA on Aug. 26. Coinbase is scheduled to halt trading in 10 perpetual contracts, including MEME-PERP and SAND-PERP, and the European Union’s expanded crypto restrictions on Belarus under MiCA will begin to apply on Aug. 25. Macro events are also clustered midweek. The US will release July core PCE, personal spending, second-quarter real GDP revision and durable goods orders on Aug. 26. Nvidia’s earnings are due at 04:00 Beijing time on Aug. 27, with its guidance described in the source material as a key test for the AI capital spending cycle. On Aug. 28, Federal Reserve Chair Warsh is set to make his first appearance at the Jackson Hole global central bank symposium. The week also includes BNB Chain’s Pasteur hard fork, a TRON compatibility upgrade proposal vote, a Zcash holder vote on the scope of NU7, and several additional token unlocks across SOSO, XPL, FF, CARDS and KMNO.