Ex-Zcash Devs Launch cashZ Wallet After Project Departure—Here’s Why It Matters

Former Zcash developers just dropped a bombshell—and it's not another privacy coin. Meet cashZ, the new wallet built by the team that walked away from one of crypto's most iconic privacy projects.

Why This Isn't Just Another Wallet

This isn't a simple rebrand. The cashZ launch signals a strategic pivot. The ex-Zcash team is leveraging their deep privacy protocol expertise—think zero-knowledge proofs and shielded transactions—but packaging it for a broader, more user-friendly market. They're betting that mainstream adoption won't come from complex command-line tools, but from seamless, secure interfaces.

The Timing Speaks Volumes

Launching in early 2026 is no accident. Regulatory scrutiny on privacy-focused assets is at an all-time high, yet demand for financial sovereignty is exploding. cashZ appears designed to navigate that tightrope—offering robust privacy features without painting a target on its users' backs. It's a calculated move in a sector where every update is a regulatory chess match.

What's Under the Hood?

While full specs are still emerging, expect cashZ to inherit Zcash's cryptographic muscle—selective transparency, transaction shielding—while ditching the baggage. The goal? Speed, lower fees, and an experience that doesn't require a PhD in cryptography. They're not just building a wallet; they're building an on-ramp.

The Bigger Picture: A Vote of No Confidence?

The team's exit from Zcash to build this raises uncomfortable questions. Is this a natural evolution, or a silent critique of the original project's direction? In crypto, developers voting with their feet is the ultimate market signal—often more telling than any whitepaper.

One cynical take for the finance traditionalists: In a world where banks charge you fees to watch your money depreciate, a team betting on privacy and self-custody looks less like rebels and more like realists. The cashZ play isn't just about technology—it's about who actually controls the value in our digital future. The old guard should be worried.

Team announces cashZ wallet using Zashi codebase

The Zcash development team stated late on January 8 that cashZ will use the same Zashi codebase they built at Electric Coin Company. Swihart reassured users of the privacy coin that the entire team remains 100% focused on full-stack Zcash development. The developers are not launching any new coins, only scaling Zcash through a new company structure.

We are all in on Zcash.
We need to scale Zcash to billions of users.
Startups can scale, but nonprofits can't.
That's why we created a new Zcash startup.https://t.co/ZurjfTxnPi pic.twitter.com/ksnwLewpPp

— Josh Swihart 🛡 (@jswihart) January 8, 2026

Users of the existing Zcash wallet Zashi will be able to migrate to cashZ easily when it launches. No other technical details about the new wallet were provided. The code name cashZ will serve as the working title until the official launch.

The announcement came hours after the team exited ECC. Swihart stated on the new company website that scaling Zcash to billions of users requires a startup structure. He noted that startups can scale but nonprofits cannot, explaining why the team created a new Zcash-focused company.

Mass resignation followed a governance dispute with the board

The entire Electric Coin Company development team resigned on January 7, 2026. The exodus resulted from a governance conflict between the ECC team and the Bootstrap board, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that oversees ECC. Swihart stated the team was “constructively discharged.” It is a legal term meaning employment conditions became so untenable that resignation was the only viable option.

Swihart publicly made a statement that the majority of Bootstrap board members moved into clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash. Board members included Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, referred to as ZCAM. Core issues were employment terms changes and mission divergence between developers and the board.

The former CEO highlighted how conditions of employment were changed in a way that made the effective execution of duties with integrity impossible. The board’s decisions reportedly limited ECC’s autonomy, prevented roadmap execution, and created what was characterized by developers as malicious governance actions.

That was not an isolated event. Founder Zooko Wilcox stepped down as CEO in December 2023, succeeded by Swihart. Peter Van Valkenburgh resigned from the Zcash Foundation board in January 2025. ECC announced internal reorganizations in December 2025, weeks before the full team left.

Startup approach replaces nonprofit structure for scaling

Swihart gave three reasons for starting a new company on the website. First, Zcash is cypherpunk and requires an organization built around that understanding.

The second reason was alignment. Swihart argued that privacy in crypto is normal, just as it is with physical cash. Fighting for these rights requires an organization with courage and the ability to move quickly without bureaucratic constraints.

The former CEO noted that anyone in crypto for more than a few years knows the entanglement of nonprofit foundations and tech startups has caused endless drama. The structural conflict between nonprofit governance and startup agility has affected multiple cryptocurrency projects.

Third, Zcash has experienced a rebirth over the past two years and is no longer a small project. The network requires organizational structures capable of supporting growth at scale.

Santiment data shows Zcash development activity dropped to its lowest rate since November 2021. The decline occurred as the price retraced 40% over the past two months. The decade-old privacy coin multiplied its market cap by approximately 15 times between September 22 and November 16, 2025.

The price surge brought attention to Zcash in late 2025. ZEC traded around $443.82 following the rally but has since declined.

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