An earthquake at Zcash (ZEC). All employees of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), which manages the network, resigned yesterday. What happened and how could ZEC be affected?
Zcash employees resign en masse
The news was announced last night by Josh Swihart, CEO of Electric Coin Company. ECC employees report a deep rift with the organization created to govern their company, Bootstrap Project. As a reminder, this is a non-profit organization created to govern ECC and hold certain levers of control. Tensions between Bootstrap Project and Electric Coin Company have reached a boiling point and led to this mass departure, according to Josh Swihart:
Yesterday, the entire ECC team resigned after being indirectly fired by ZCAM. In short, our employment conditions were changed in a way that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.
In labor law, “constructive dismissal” occurs when an employer changes working conditions to such an extent that employees are forced to leave—which is what happened here, according to ECC employees. They consider themselves forced to leave by a hostile management.
While Josh Swihart directly names the Bootstrap members he believes are responsible, he does not explain what the subject of the disagreement was.
New company and next steps for Zcash
The former ECC members will launch a new company to continue their “mission,” according to the former CEO: “building an unstoppable private currency.” Josh Swihart’s message also specifies that the Zcash network is not affected by this change:
This decision is simply intended to protect our team’s work from malicious governance actions that have made it impossible to fulfill ECC’s original mission.
The new company will replace the Electric Coin Company and have the same role. Its name and status are unknown at this stage.
For his part, the former CEO of ECC, Zooko Wilcox, responded in defense of the Bootstrap members appointed by Josh Swihart:
I have worked closely with Alan Fairless, Zaki Manian, and Christina Garman for over ten years, through many intense and difficult situations, as well as with Michelle Lai for about five years. Based on my experience, I consider them all to be people of exceptional integrity.
ZEC price drops in response to the news
Already down, the price of ZEC fell following the announcement. In the hours that followed, it lost 10.3%. Its price stands at $434 this morning:
This massive departure highlights the unique situation Zcash finds itself in. Its relatively unexpected return to favor in 2025 led to changes at the company. On December 1, the ECC announced a reorganization of its teams to streamline its operations. A little over a month later, the Electric Coin Company became an empty shell. The project’s trajectory for 2026 is therefore still unclear at this stage.
