The price of Zcash (ZEC) has plunged massively over the past few hours following the mass resignation of the entire Zcash core development team at Electric Coin Company (ECC).
In an update released yesterday, former ECC CEO Josh Swihart revealed that the company’s staff resigned after deep governance conflicts emerged.
Zcash Core Development Team Resigns
According to Swihart, tensions had intensified over recent weeks as a majority of board members at Bootstrap, a nonprofit created to support Zcash and oversee ECC, allegedly deviated from Zcash’s core mission.
Swihart specifically named Alan Fairless, Christina Garman, Zaki Manian, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM) as individuals he said were no longer aligned with the project’s original vision. He further stated that actions taken by the Bootstrap board effectively forced ECC staff to resign by constructive discharge.
Moreover, Swihart explained that the board’s changes made it impossible for the ECC team to continue working “effectively and with integrity”. Although he did not detail the specific changes, he suggested that the governance decisions interfered with ECC’s ability to fulfill its original mandate.
As a result, the entire ECC team chose to step down simultaneously rather than operate under the revised conditions. Swihart also disclosed plans to form a new company, emphasizing that it will include the same engineers and contributors who previously worked on Zcash at ECC.
Insider Rug Pull FUD Causes ZEC’s Crash
Swihart’s announcement triggered a wave of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) that has since impacted ZEC’s price. In response, some critics alleged that insiders dumped large amounts of ZEC ahead of the resignations.
However, StarPlatinum, an ambassador for the prediction market Kalshi, pushed back against these claims using on-chain data. Citing blockchain data from Arkham, StarPlatinum revealed that 202,076 ZEC, or 1.2% of Zcash’s circulating supply, was unshielded from Zcash’s Orchard pool to a newly created transparent address on January 2.
The following day, 74,002 ZEC from the same wallet moved to Binance. Notably, both transactions occurred several days before the ECC team formally resigned.
Moreover, StarPlatinum noted that since these large transfers, the blockchain has shown no abnormal activity or any single transfer exceeding 10,000 ZEC. Based on the available evidence, the sell-off appears to stem from a single anonymous whale rather than coordinated insider dumping, according to StarPlatinum.
ZEC Plunges Over 15% in 24 Hours as Two Whales Sit on Unrealized Loss of $2.2M
Although Swihart announced the ECC staff’s resignations yesterday, CoinMarketCap data shows that ZEC’s sharp decline began today, following the spread of rug-pull rumors.
ZEC, which ranked among the best-performing tokens of 2025, entered a steep free fall earlier today, just hours after the announcement. After trading near $500 yesterday, the price plunged to a multi-week low of $382, a roughly 48% drop from its November 2025 peak of $736.
The sudden collapse has taken a heavy toll on traders’ portfolios. According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, two large wallets, identified as 0x6ef9 and 0x089f, opened 1× long positions totaling 27,985 ZEC, worth about $11.1 million, the previous day.
Following the slide to $396, both positions fell underwater, with combined unrealized losses exceeding $2.2 million. Despite the rebound, ZEC is still down 15.84% over the past day and 23.5% in one week.
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