The privacy coin sector just entered the new year with a "major earthquake." The core development organization of Zcash(ZEC), Electric Coin Company(ECC), suddenly announced that the entire team has resigned. This is not just a few people leaving, but a collective withdrawal of the entire development team. After the news was announced, the market immediately reacted—ZEC's price plummeted, and panic spread. Meanwhile, its old rival Monero(XMR) experienced a rebound, with large amounts of funds flowing in, once again becoming a focal point in the privacy coin field.

Where exactly does this crisis stem from? According to a statement released by ECC CEO Josh Swihart on January 8, 2026, the problem is not with the technical approach or community division, but with the collapse of the governance system itself. Swihart stated that the decision-making of the board of the nonprofit organization Bootstrap, which oversees and funds ECC, has seriously deviated from Zcash's core mission of protecting economic freedom. The more immediate trigger was that the Bootstrap board unilaterally changed the team's employment conditions in recent weeks, which triggered a collective backlash from ECC. Simply put, this is not a technical issue, but a talent drain caused by organizational decision-making errors.

This incident also reflects the intense competition in the privacy coin sector—when a project's governance encounters problems, funds and attention quickly shift to more stable alternatives. For those paying attention to the privacy coin ecosystem, this is a pivotal turning point worth observing.