Zcash developers will launch CashZ Wallet after leaving ECC
The developers of privacy-focused Zcash have announced they are working on a new wallet for the cryptocurrency, less than a day after a high-profile move from the electric coin company.
“The team from Electric Coin, the company that launched Zcash and created the Zashi wallet, is now launching a new wallet for Zcash using the Zashi codebase we built,” former ECC CEO Josh Swihart reported on Thursday.
The wallet's codename is cashZ and it will launch in “a few weeks,” he said. Existing Zcash (ZEC) wallet users can seamlessly migrate Zcash to the new one. There were no other details about the new wallet.
The move comes just hours after the team pulled out of the ACC amid a conflict over nonprofit rules and governance tensions.
Swihart assured Privacy Coin and Wallet users that “the team that worked at the Electric Coin company and built Zcash is still 100% fully focused on the development of Zcash.”
“We're not launching any new coins, we're losing Zcash. To do that, we need to start a new company focused on Zcash.”
ZCash devs want to go back to their cypherpunk roots
On the website, Swihart gave more reasons why the group decided to create a new company. “First, Zcash is cypherpunk, and we want an organization built on that understanding,” he said.
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The second factor was alignment. Swihart argued that privacy is normal in crypto, just like with physical money. Fighting for these rights requires bold organization and swift action without bureaucratic constraints.
Nonprofits focus on compliance, while startups focus on innovation, Swihart said.
“Anyone who has been in crypto for more than a few years knows that the intertwining of non-profit foundations and tech startups is the source of endless drama.”
Third, Zcash has experienced a rebirth in the past couple of years and is no longer a small project. Competing with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) requires an organizational structure built to scale quickly.
ZEC shows a slight recovery
The privacy token plunged more than 21% after the upheaval, falling below $400 on Thursday.
ZEC saw a slight recovery after the announcement as it traded back to $430 early Friday. However, the asset is down 86 percent from its 2016 all-time high of $3,191 and down 38 percent from its peak in 2025, Koingeco said.
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