This year, privacy-focused altcoins have performed exceptionally well, reminiscent of exciting bull market days. They remain strong and have announced new updates, particularly Zebra 3.1. This article explores the details of Zebra 3.1 and its implications on ZEC Coin’s price expectations.
Details of Zebra 3.1 Update
Zcash Foundation has released the Zebra 3.1.0 version. The new release improves Docker support and enhances the RPC interface. The Docker infrastructure has been updated from Debian Bookworm to Trixie, and the multi-architecture manifest logic has been fixed.
“This resolves previous issues where ARM users could receive incompatible images, ensuring Zebra’s usability on devices like Apple Silicon and cloud ARM instances. Zebra 3.1.0 introduces a mempool filter that rejects transactions with extremely small outputs (‘.dust’), typically used in spam or disruptive activities. By filtering these transactions before they are broadcasted to the mempool, Zebra helps protect the network from certain spam vectors and reduces resource utilization for node operators.” – Zcash Foundation
The maximum size for RPC responses has been made configurable, and a robust structure for large queries has been implemented. This latest update is a step towards deprecating zcashd. The team aims to make Zebra a modern, Rust-based Zcash node, enhancing the blockchain for operators and developers. While these changes do not significantly impact end-users, improvements in the overall network structure are positive for ZEC Coin.
ZEC Coin 2026 Projections
ZEC Coin continues strong, currently experiencing a 10% daily increase. Though it dipped to $300 in December, it hasn’t experienced a steep drop following this year’s 12-fold rise. It’s only 42% below its peak but still 600% above where it was 81 days ago.
Maintaining the $300 support is promising for hitting greater highs in the new year. Being among the largest privacy-focused altcoins is an advantage for ZEC, and even the SEC acknowledges and supports concerns regarding privacy in crypto. Having reclaimed the second significant support level at $376, ZEC Coin is now entering the new year with its sights set on $445 support.
If this support is achieved in January, the price could rise to the $485-$608 range. The next target will be the $741 resistance, beginning a journey to potentially greater all-time highs in 2026.
