Zcash Core Team Resigns En Masse; ZEC Plummets 20%
ZEC crashes to $382 as CEO Josh Swihart and the entire ECC engineering team resign over a ‘constructive discharge’ dispute with the Bootstrap board.
Governance Implosion at Electric Coin Company
The entire development team at Electric Coin Company (ECC) resigned abruptly on Wednesday, sending Zcash (ZEC) spiraling 20% to a monthly low of $382. The mass walkout, led by CEO Josh Swihart, marks the culmination of a bitter power struggle between the commercial development arm and its non-profit overseer, the Bootstrap Board.
Swihart publicly attributed the exit to “constructive discharge,” claiming the Bootstrap board altered employment terms to a degree that made continued work impossible. In a scorching statement, Swihart singled out board members Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, dubbed “ZCAM,” alleging they had moved into “clear misalignment” with the project’s privacy-first mission.
“The terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.” Josh Swihart, Former ECC CEO
The ‘Zashi’ Dispute
The conflict reportedly centers on the structuring of outside investment for Zashi, ECC’s consumer-facing wallet. Sources close to the Bootstrap board indicate the dispute was not about mission, but legal compliance. As a 501(c)(3) organization, Bootstrap is legally bound to prevent “private capture” of non-profit assets. The board allegedly blocked investment proposals for Zashi that could have violated US non-profit statutes or exposed the organization to donor lawsuits.
This rigid adherence to non-profit law clashed violently with ECC’s need for operational agility. The result? A complete severance of the protocol’s primary engineering talent.
Market Reaction & Future Outlook
Markets punished the uncertainty instantly. ZEC erased weeks of gains, dropping from $456 to $382 (-16%) as liquidation cascades hit privacy-focused order books. Data reveals over 200,000 ZEC (~$76M) were withdrawn from shielded pools earlier this week, suggesting insiders may have anticipated the fracture.
Swihart has announced plans to form a new commercial entity to continue building “unstoppable private money,” effectively forking the human capital while leaving the brand behind. Meanwhile, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox, who stepped down as CEO in 2023, attempted to stem the bleeding, defending the integrity of the accused board members in a separate post. The protocol remains operational, but its governance is now effectively headless.
