Bootstrap board for non-profit law, Zcash Wallet investment paid
Bootstrap, which backs privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, says a recent management dispute that led to the departure of key board members at the charity stemmed from legal restrictions nonprofits face when seeking investment.
The comments follow the decision of the main development team behind Zcash (ZEC) to separate from Bootstrap and form a new company. ECC cited concerns over what it described as “malicious management practices,” Cointelegraph reported Thursday.
In its official response, Bootstrap said board members discussed Zash, a self-guarding crypto wallet built for private Zcash transactions, to “privatize foreign investments and alternative structures.”
The Board discussed that while we are working with legal counsel to privatize Zcash, it is consistent with Zcash's long-term mission and does not jeopardize the broader Zcash community.
Zcash was developed by ECC and launched on mobile platforms in early 2024. The source code reflects Zcash's open source model where no one party owns or controls the protocol.
RELATED: 2025 crypto bear market was a ‘transformative' year for institutional capital: analyst
Bootstrap's primary dispute arises from its fiduciary and legal obligations as a non-profit organization registered under Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code.
The proposed deal could introduce “new vulnerabilities to politically motivated attacks on Zcash,” including possible lawsuits from donors leading to settlement of transactions, which Zcash “returns to ECC,” the statement said.
Bootstrap added that these things “put the entire Zcash ecosystem at risk” and that such transactions should be done “carefully” to ensure that these assets “serve the public good” and are not “seized for private gain”.
The Zcash code is public and open source, and no single company or entity owns the protocol.
RELATED: Q4 Paper Loss Hits $17B As Strategy 2026 Buys Bitcoin For $116M
For-profit organizations can attract “significant amounts” of foreign capital to Zcash, Bootstrap said.
Emphasizing that the dispute is not Zcash's mission, Bootstrap acknowledged that operating a non-profit structure could limit access to capital.
The board members added that getting foreign investments could bring more money to the Zcash ecosystem:
“There's nothing wrong with profit, and a well-done project like this can be a great way to bring in a lot of outside capital to make Zcash and privacy great and user-friendly.”
Cointelegraph reached out to ECC and Bootstrap for more information on the foreign investment and internal distribution, but did not receive a response by press time.
The ZEC token has fallen by 16% in the last 24 hours, to trade above $406 at the time of writing, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
At the same time, large holders increased their exposure, during which the so-called whales bought about $914,000 worth of ZEC, while newly created wallets accumulated about $1.74 million.
Magazine: 2026 is the year of practical privacy in crypto – Canton, Zcash and more.
