Zcash Drops 48% Following Critical Network Vulnerability Fix

Zcash price fell 48% to $302.48 after a critical protocol vulnerability was found.

The price of Zcash (ZEC) fell by 48% to $302.48 after a critical vulnerability was discovered in the protocol. The flaw allowed for the infinite and undetectable creation of counterfeit coins.

The issue in the anonymous Orchard pool was discovered by security engineer Taylor Hornby on May 29.

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— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) June 4, 2026

He used the Opus 4.8 AI model from Anthropic to analyze the code. Hornby managed to create a working bug that successfully generated tokens in the test network.

Developers from Shielded Labs acknowledged that the issue had existed since the launch of Orchard in May 2022. Due to the privacy features of the blockchain, it is impossible to determine if anyone exploited this vulnerability over the past four years.

The Zcash team fixed the bug on June 1. Developers believe the vulnerability was unlikely to have been exploited in practice, as it was too complex to find.

To restore trust, Shielded Labs proposed launching a new protected pool. This will allow verification of the actual ZEC issuance volume. The organization also plans to conduct a formal verification of the Orchard code to mathematically prove the absence of other bugs.

In May, the price of the privacy coin broke the $585 mark for the first time since November 2025.