The team behind Zcash’s core development has stepped down following a dispute over governance, marking a significant moment for one of the crypto industry’s longest-running privacy-focused projects.
On Wednesday, the entire staff of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) resigned after a clash with the board of its parent nonprofit, Bootstrap. ECC CEO Josh Swihart confirmed the departures in a public post, citing what he described as a fundamental disagreement over structure and direction with the majority of Bootstrap’s board.
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
Bootstrap, a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was established to oversee ECC and support the broader Zcash ecosystem. Swihart said the governance conflict led to changes in employment terms that made it impossible for the team to continue its work effectively.
“Yesterday, the entire ECC team left after being constructively discharged,” Swihart wrote, adding that the developers felt they could no longer perform their duties “with integrity” under the revised conditions.
He emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself remains operational and unaffected by the personnel changes.
Under U.S. labor definitions, constructive discharge refers to situations where employees resign due to significant or severe changes imposed by an employer, effectively forcing their departure.
Swihart named several Bootstrap board members as being misaligned with what he sees as Zcash’s core mission. Despite the split, he said the departing developers plan to form a new company focused on building what he called “unstoppable private money,” signaling their intention to continue working in the privacy technology space outside the current Zcash structure.
A Pattern of Leadership Changes
The mass resignation follows a series of leadership transitions within the Zcash ecosystem. Swihart became CEO in December 2023 after longtime Zcash leader Zooko Wilcox stepped down following eight years at the helm. In early 2025, Peter Van Valkenburgh also resigned from the Zcash Foundation board, adding to the sense of ongoing change around the project.
Electric Coin Company
The timing is notable. Just weeks earlier, on Dec. 1, ECC announced an internal reorganization aimed at streamlining operations. The plan unified core protocol and mobile engineering under a single leadership structure and consolidated marketing and communications. At the time, the company said the goal was to better align development with user experience, particularly around its Zashi wallet, and reduce internal friction.
valkenburgh
Market Context and ZEC Performance
The internal turmoil comes after a strong period for Zcash in the market. In early November, ZEC briefly surpassed a $10 billion market capitalization, returning to the top 20 cryptocurrencies and overtaking rivals such as Hyperliquid. Prominent investor Arthur Hayes noted at the time that ZEC had become the second-largest liquid holding in his firm’s portfolio, behind bitcoin, after posting gains of roughly 750% since October.
Since then, prices have cooled. ZEC was last trading around $456, down nearly 8% over the past 24 hours. While the token remains up about 11% over the past month, it is still approximately 92% below its all-time high of $5,941.80 reached in October 2016.
