A group of Zcash developers disclosed plans for a new wallet, cashZ, just hours after their exit from Electric Coin Co (ECC). The team had previously built the Zashi wallet while at ECC, and said the new product will be developed on top of Zashi’s codebase. The announcement was shared by former ECC CEO Josh Swihart in a blog post posted on X.
The developers said cashZ is not a split from Zcash. Swihart wrote that the team is not launching a new coin and remains focused on scaling Zcash. In his words, leaving ECC and creating a Zcash-focused company was necessary if that goal was to be pursued. He also said the time had come to scale Zcash to billions.
cashZ to reuse the Zashi foundation
The wallet is expected to go live in the coming weeks. The team also said there will be a migration path for existing Zashi users, showing that the rollout is being planned as a continuation of prior wallet work rather than a separate reset. The announcement quickly drew attention across social media.
Three reasons were given for the ECC departure
On its website, the team listed three reasons for leaving. First, the developers described Zcash as a cypherpunk movement centered on making privacy normal again in digital finance. They argued that privacy in the digital world should resemble the old cash era, when a dollar bill could move through the economy without being traced.
Second, they pointed to what they called structural misalignment between a nonprofit organization and a fast-moving tech startup. The team said combining multiple organizations, with one being a poorly governed nonprofit and the other a rapidly innovating startup, creates conflicting incentives and recurring friction.
Third, the developers said Zcash now needs scale. Their view is that the project has moved beyond its early phase and now requires a larger push in adoption and reach.
ZEC dipped, then rebounded
Price action in ZEC, the native token of the privacy blockchain, was relatively measured after the news. The token briefly fell to $381 following the departure, then recovered to $430. Trading volume reached $844 million for the day, which the report described as moderate momentum.