The entire Electric Coin Company team behind privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has split from Bootstrap, the nonprofit created to support the token, and plans to create a new company, according to CEO Josh Swihart.
“Over the past few weeks, it’s become clear that the majority of Bootstrap board members […] Specifically Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM), have moved into clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash,” Swihart said on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, the entire ECC team left,” he said. “In short, the terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.”
“This decision is simply about protecting our team’s work from malicious governance actions that have made it impossible to honor ECC’s original mission,” Swihart said.
“We’re founding a new company, but we’re still the same team with the same mission: building unstoppable private money,” he added.
Zcash unaffected, business as usual
Swihart said the Zcash protocol is unaffected by the team’s departure and will continue to operate as normal.
Zcash’s code is public, open-source and no single company or entity owns the protocol. Anyone can run a node, maintain a fork, or submit code changes. The network relies on miners, validators, and users to remain active.
Former ECC CEO defends Bootstrap board
Former ECC CEO Zooko Wilcox, who handed the reins to Swihart in 2023, defended the Bootstrap board in an X post on Wednesday.
“I’ve worked closely with Alan Fairless, Zaki Manian, and Christina Garman for more than 10 years, through many intense and difficult situations, and with Michelle Lai for about 5 years. Based on my experiences, I believe them all to be people of exceptionally high integrity,” Wilcox said.
Zooko also reiterated that the Zcash protocol will continue to operate as normal: “The Zcash network is open source, permissionless, secure, and private, and nothing that happens in this conflict can change that. You can safely continue to use Zcash,” he added.
Related: Four crypto comebacks from 2025 that could help shape year ahead
Zcash price down for the day
Zcash is down nearly 7% in the last 24 hours, and is trading hands for around $461, according to crypto data aggregator CoinGecko. It’s been drifting between $452 and $497 in the same timeframe.
The token benefited from a privacy coin rally in November last year, spiking to around $723 on Nov. 8, partly driven by support from some of the industry’s most popular commentators, such as Arthur Hayes.
Magazine: 2026 is the year of pragmatic privacy in crypto: Canton, Zcash and more
