Original author: Curry, Deep Tide TechFow

On January 7, the core development team of Zcash collectively resigned.

It wasn't just one or two people throwing a tantrum; the entire Electric Coin Company, about 25 people, led by the CEO, all left.

This company is commonly referred to as ECC, the main developer behind Zcash. You can think of it as the group of people who write the code, and they are no longer working.

As soon as the news broke, ZEC plummeted by 20%.

A fun fact: Zcash is nearly ten years old.

It launched on October 28, 2016, earlier than many people entered the crypto space. Its selling point back then was "private transactions," where the sender, receiver, and amount were all encrypted, and nothing could be seen on the chain.

But the reality is, after nine years, less than 1% of ZEC transactions have actually used this feature.

The remaining 99% of people are still exposed.

After nine years, the product is unused, and the team is still holding on. The coin price has dropped from over $3,000 at its launch in 2016 to $15 in July 2024.

Then, at the end of 2025, ZEC suddenly surged.

It was still hovering around $40 at the beginning of the year, but on November 7, it skyrocketed to $744, with a market cap exceeding $10 billion, making a comeback into the top twenty.

The narrative of privacy coins, which had been dormant for years, suddenly became attractive again.

Alright, the coin price rose nearly 800%, and then, "the development team ran away."

This story sounds like a script for middle-aged men. Bought a Porsche, then got divorced. Received a year-end bonus, then disbanded.

When money is scarce, everyone is comrades; when money flows, disputes arise over who calls the shots.

What are they disputing? A wallet called Zashi.

Zashi is a mobile wallet released by ECC in early 2024, featuring "privacy functions enabled by default." It is the most important user entry point in the Zcash ecosystem.

The ECC team wanted to privatize Zashi, bring in external investment, and turn it into a startup that could raise funds and iterate quickly.

But ECC is not an independent company. In 2020, ECC was incorporated into a nonprofit organization called Bootstrap, which is structured as a 501(c)(3) in the U.S.

In simple terms, this structure is specifically for charitable organizations and public benefit groups. The advantage is that it doesn't have to pay taxes, but the downside is that profits cannot be distributed to insiders, and asset disposal must be approved by the board.

This was done back then for compliance, to avoid SEC regulatory pressure. In a bear market, no one cared about these details since there was no money to distribute anyway.

Now the Bootstrap board says, no way.

The board's reasoning is:

We are a nonprofit organization with a legal obligation to protect donor interests. Privatizing Zashi could be illegal, could lead to lawsuits, and could invite political attacks. They even cited an example: look at OpenAI, which faced numerous lawsuits when it tried to transition from nonprofit to for-profit.

ECC's former CEO Josh Swihart disagrees. He stated on Twitter that the board's actions are "malicious governance," making it "impossible for the team to perform their duties effectively and with dignity."

He used a legal term called "constructive discharge," meaning that although he wasn't fired, the working conditions were changed to the point where he couldn't continue, effectively forcing him out.

25 people were forced out together.

At the same time, Swihart named four board members: Zaki, Christina, Alan, and Michelle. He combined the initials of the four into "ZCAM."

ZCAM. It sounds like SCAM. Not sure if that was intentional.

Among these four, Zaki Manian has the most interesting story.

He is a veteran of the Cosmos ecosystem and was once a core member of Tendermint. He resigned in 2020 after a public fallout with founder Jae Kwon.

In 2023, the FBI informed him that two developers in a project he was responsible for were North Korean agents. After learning this, he concealed it for 16 months before going public. In October 2024, Jae Kwon publicly accused him of "serious negligence" and "betraying the community's trust."

Now, he is a member of the Zcash board.

The day after the resignation, the former ECC team announced the establishment of a new company, codenamed CashZ.

They said they would use Zashi's codebase to create a new wallet, launching within weeks. Existing Zashi users can migrate seamlessly.

"We are still the same team, with the same mission: to create unstoppable private currency."

No new coins, no starting from scratch, just changing the shell and continuing the work.

What we find most ironic about this situation is the timing.

When ZEC was at $15, no one cared who managed the wallet. When it rose to $500, the value of Zashi became a matter of life and death.

When money flows, only then do you know who your family is.

The conflict between nonprofit organizations and startup teams is similar; in the case of OpenAI, the board lost, while in Zcash, the team left.

Who won is uncertain, but this conflict indeed exists widely in crypto projects.

Swihart wrote a statement on CashZ's official website explaining why he left:

"The nonprofit foundation model is a relic of the compliance era in the crypto industry. At that time, projects needed a 'compliance buffer' to protect themselves. But these buffers brought about bureaucracy and divergent paths. Startups can expand rapidly, while nonprofits cannot."

He also stated, "Anyone who has spent a few years in the crypto industry knows that the entanglement between nonprofit foundations and tech startups is a source of endless drama."

Indeed, it is endless drama.

In 2023, when Zooko stepped down as CEO, there were already reports of disagreements between him and Swihart. In January 2025, Peter Van Valkenburgh, a board member of the Zcash Foundation, also resigned.

For a ten-year-old coin, those who needed to leave have mostly left.

Someone asked on Twitter: Will Zcash die?

The chain is still running. The code is still there. It's just that the people writing the code have changed.

But Swihart is right; the conflict between nonprofits and startups is a common ailment in this industry. Cosmos has had its disputes. The Ethereum Foundation has had its disputes. The Solana Foundation has had its disputes.

The only difference is the manner and intensity of the disputes.

Zcash chose the most straightforward way.

Disbanded.

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