Zcash Developers Depart ECC Amid Internal Conflict

ECC's Zcash developers leave amid internal conflict; ZEC price drops over 10%.

The entire team at Electric Coin Company (ECC), the primary developer of Zcash, has left the company due to an internal conflict, according to former CEO Josh Swihart.

Over the past few weeks, it’s become clear that the majority of Bootstrap board members (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to support Zcash by governing the Electric Coin Company), specifically Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM), have moved into…

— Josh Swihart 🛡 (@jswihart) January 7, 2026

According to him, most board members of the Bootstrap nonprofit acted contrary to the mission of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency. The organization supported and developed the Zcash ecosystem.

“In short, the terms of our employment were altered in such a way that it became impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and in good faith,” added Swihart.

The developers plan to establish a new company, maintaining their commitment to the primary goal of creating “unstoppable private money.”

The Zcash protocol will not be affected by the team’s departure and will continue to operate as usual.

“This decision was made solely to protect our team’s work from malicious actions by the management, which made it impossible to fulfill ECC’s original mission,” Swihart explained.

Zcash Token Reaction

Following the news, the price of ZEC fell by more than 10% over the past day. At the time of writing, the coin is trading around $440, significantly below the November peak of $720.

Helius Labs co-founder Mert Mumtaz described the event as a “bullish signal.” The expert still anticipates Zcash to rise to $10,000.

extremely bullish

zcash’s most competent (along with tachyon ofc), now unburdened by the crippling inefficiencies of foundation politics

$10,000

the money is actually gonna be encrypted https://t.co/pyQYSk1nOu

— mert | helius (@mert) January 7, 2026

“Zcash’s most competent people (along with Tachyon, of course), now free from the crippling inefficiencies of foundation politics,” commented Mumtaz.

Earlier, a16z crypto experts considered privacy the main direction of the crypto market in 2026. Entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan and Coinbase Ventures share this view.