The wholesale exit of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) development team to launch the for-profit startup CashZ has sent shockwaves through the decentralization and privacy-tech communities. By transitioning the core engineering talent away from the legacy nonprofit framework, the move has challenged the long-held narrative of decentralized stewardship, sparking urgent concerns that Zcash might be entering a period of structural decline.

The ECC team’s departure follows a period of significant market momentum for the protocol’s native token, ZEC, which ended 2025 as the top-performing digital asset after a dramatic surge above $600. However, the announcement of the exit triggered an immediate 20% sell-off, ceding ground to rivals like Monero. The friction surrounding former ECC Chief Executive Josh Swihart’s departure—which he characterized as a “constructive discharge” following an irreconcilable governance dispute with the Bootstrap board—has further exacerbated fears of a permanent rift or a potential chain fork.

Read more: Zcash Development Team Resigns En Masse as Governance Dispute Rattles ZEC Price

However, nearly a week later,the alarm had subsided. ZEC, which has since ceded momentum to rival coin XMR, rebounded from a Jan. 10 low of $365 to $443 by Jan. 15. Still, questions remain and some observers warn the manner in which Swihart and his team left does not bode well for Zcash’s future.

Some see the fragmentation as a threat to the privacy protocol’s long-term prospects. Still, a experts interviewed by Bitcoin.com News disagreed, saying the split benefits Zcash. Joel Valenzuela, a member of the Dash decentralized autonomous organization ( DAO) and an independent analyst, said fragmentation will strengthen the project.

“One of the top criticisms of Zcash over the years has been structural centralization. Now there are many new teams and organizations: Bootstrap/ECC, CashZ, Zcash Foundation, Shielded Labs, and the Tachyon Project,” Valenzuela said.

Nima Beni, founder of Bitlease, said the shake-up may look like “abandoning the cypherpunk vision” from the outside. But like Valenzuela, he argued fragmentation benefits Zcash.

“Ideals matter — but the network still needs durable funding, shipping velocity, and accountable execution. If Zcash can support multiple independent teams without diluting privacy guarantees, the end result can be more resilient, not less,” Beni said.

Meanwhile, the ECC team’s sudden exit fueled concerns about a single point of failure. For Valenzuela, however, Zcash is better positioned to handle turmoil now than in past years, thanks to multiple teams and funding models. Beni, on the other hand, acknowledged the episode was “clearly a single-point-of-failure moment” but said it also presents an opportunity.

“The near-term risk is stalled development and shaken confidence; the long-term opportunity is rebuilding with a broader contributor base, clearer governance, and more transparent delivery,” Beni said.

The shift from a nonprofit (ECC under the Bootstrap Foundation) to a for-profit startup (Cashz) marks a pivotal moment in the Zcash ecosystem. The transition reorders priorities for developers. In a nonprofit model, success is measured by fidelity to the mission and compliance with donor mandates. In a startup model, success is measured by adoption, retention, and revenue.

The primary risk in a startup model is incentive creep. Experts warn that if a startup needs more data to satisfy advertisers or investors, it might “quietly turn privacy into an optional feature.” To prevent this, privacy must be hard-coded into the protocol’s architecture so it cannot be disabled at the user interface level without undermining the product’s core value.

When announcing his exit, Swihart claimed that nonprofits cannot scale, prompting debate over whether the foundation model is suitable for privacy protocols amid shifting regulatory demands.

In response, Valenzuela insisted that nonprofits, DAOs and similar structures remain necessary to safeguard decentralized and neutral blockchains. “But to achieve top growth, we do need for-profit engines to bring these neutral networks to the masses. Both are needed to avoid pitfalls,” he said.

Beni said nonprofits struggle to compete at product speed and to hire execution talent at scale, but he rejected the idea that they are broken. He proposed a hybrid approach.

• What happened to ECC? The Electric Coin Co. team exited to launch the for‑profit startup CashZ.
• How did markets react? ZEC fell 20% after the announcement, then rebounded from $365 to $443 by Jan. 15.
• Does this threaten Zcash? Some warn of fragmentation and single‑point‑of‑failure risks, while others see resilience.
• Why does the shift matter? Moving from nonprofit to startup changes priorities from mission fidelity to adoption and revenue.

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