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Top privacy token Zcash falls 14% after key developer team quits over governance clash
ECC's CEO, Josh Swihart, claims the team was forced to leave because of changes that made their work untenable.
Updated Jan 8, 2026, 4:26 p.m. Published Jan 8, 2026, 11:03 a.m.
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What to know:
- The entire team of Electric Coin Company (ECC), a key developer of Zcash, has resigned due to a dispute with the nonprofit Bootstrap.
- ECC's CEO, Josh Swihart, claims the team was forced to leave because of changes that made their work untenable.
- Bootstrap attributes the conflict to governance and legal issues, emphasizing compliance with nonprofit law.
Electric Coin Company (ECC), one of the main development firms behind the privacy-focused crypto network Zcash, says its entire team has left following a dispute with Bootstrap, a nonprofit created to support the network.
The token, ZEC, fell nearly 14% in the last 24 hours.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Josh Swihart, CEO at ECC, wrote on X that a majority of Bootstrap’s board members — naming Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless and Michelle Lai (ZCAM) — had moved into “clear misalignment” with what he described as Zcash’s mission.
Swihart said ECC’s staff were “constructively discharged,” arguing that the terms of their employment had been changed in ways that made it impossible to do their jobs “effectively and with integrity.”
A constructive discharge is when employees quit because conditions are changed so severely that staying becomes unrealistic — even if they weren’t formally fired.
The ECC team is now forming a new company, Swihart said, adding that they remain committed to Zcash’s core goal: “building unstoppable private money.”
He stressed that the Zcash protocol itself is unaffected by the personnel shakeup, describing the move as a response to what he characterized as “malicious governance actions” that made it impossible for ECC to carry out its work under the current structure.
Bootstrap is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was created to support Zcash and provides governance oversight for ECC.
In a statement following the X posts, Bootstrap framed the dispute as a governance and legal issue tied to its status as a 501(c)(3) public-benefit nonprofit.
The board said it had been exploring outside investment and alternative structures involving Zashi, a Zcash wallet project, but argued any such transaction must comply with nonprofit law and protect mission-owned assets from private capture.
It warned that a poorly structured deal could invite lawsuits from donors, trigger political scrutiny, or even be unwound, forcing assets to be transferred back.
Bootstrap said the disagreement is about compliance and fiduciary duty, not Zcash’s mission.
