The entire staff of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), the developer behind Zcash and the Zashi wallet, resigned on January 8th, 2026 following a governance dispute with the Bootstrap board of directors.

featured as a partnership mention in a podcast episode with Raoul Pal discussing crypto navigation for 2026

Users experience horrible spreads and slippage due to liquidity issues.

User successfully routes Zashi transactions through Nym mixnet while performing cross-chain USDC payments from shielded ZEC to traditional bank accounts, demonstrating integration of multiple privacy technologies.

Zashi app integrates Starknet confidential transfers with full client-side proving capabilities.

Integration with NEAR intents allows users to make private cross-chain payments to any blockchain while maintaining privacy through shielded ZEC accounts.

At least one user successfully runs Zashi wallet on GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused Android operating system.

Zcash retroactive grant voting closes with 1.2M ZEC participating (7.5% of token holders), approving $2.7M retroactive grant for Zashi along with several other ecosystem proposals. The voting represents a governance milestone with over $500M in voter value participating.

Zashi app representatives meet with Washington DC legislators to discuss privacy in cryptocurrency alongside Union and CESS Storage, in buildup to Union's Private Bridging whitepaper.

Coin Metrics reports shielded supply grows to 4.9M ZEC (30% of total supply) from 4.5M, and ZEC price increases nearly 10x since October. Growth is driven mostly by partially shielded flows rather than fully private transactions.

Zashi wallet integrates with Keystone 3 Pro hardware wallet, marketed as the privacy-first pairing option.

NEAR Intents volumes increase significantly last month as users adopt the protocol for private cross-chain swaps into ZEC via Zashi app.

User reports Zashi wallet cannot import wallets with birth dates before October 2018 and requires many hours to sync, highlighting significant usability issues when attempting to access old ZEC holdings.

Shielded pool reaches all-time highs, and Tachyon upgrade targets 100x scaling with faster blocks, higher TPS, and complete elimination of state-growth problem.

Zcash's shielded pool surpasses billions of dollars in value and becomes the largest shielded pool in all of crypto.

Gemini now supports Orchard privacy protocol routing withdrawals through shielded addresses by default. Arthur Hayes disclosed ZEC as his second-largest holding after BTC, shielded supply reaches 4.5M ZEC (over 25% of total supply), private Z-to-Z transactions comprise over 25% of network activity, and STARK verifier integration is in progress for private Layer 2 development. Shielded ZEC TVL reaches $2.6B compared to $1.2B across Ethereum privacy tools.

Wrapped ZEC launches on Solana via Zolana bridge, new partnerships with Flexa, Maya Protocol, and Hyperliquid enable payments and perpetuals trading, while Grayscale Zcash Trust grows 228% to $151M AUM.

Zashi wallet integrates NEAR Intents functionality.

Criticism emerges of inauthentic promotion activity, with claims that many shilling the project haven't actually used Zashi or conducted private transactions.

A ZCASH Hackathon is scheduled to take place soon.

Zashi app becomes a patron of Bold Comics in a new marketing partnership.

25% of ZEC now held in encrypted addresses as Zashi wallet defaults to shielded transfers, with Zcash surpassing Monero as top privacy coin.

Zashi Wallet evolves with vaults and ephemeral addresses while Zebra node releases version 3.0.0-rc.0 with performance improvements. Orchard and Halo 2 upgrades bring faster, unified addresses.

Zashi app integration with Bitrefill enables users to purchase gift cards using shielded ZEC that swaps to ETH for payment processing.

Near Intents unlocks ZEC onchain and becomes its main liquidity venue for cross-chain transactions, with direct swap functionality through Zashi app now operational.

Electric Coin Co. releases Q4 2025 roadmap with plans to add temporary transparent addresses for NEAR Intents-based ZEC swaps and enable P2SH multisig support for Keystone hardware wallets.

HyperLiquid adds ZEC spot trading to official UI next week.

AI-generated fake profiles pretend to be Zcash users and beg for tips on Zashi platform.

Limited 24-hour promotional pricing of $149 for Zashi x Keystone hardware wallet with discount code 'Privacy' announced as Zcash birthday gift to community.

Crypto investigator zachxbt creates a thread about Zashi and Near Intents.

ZEC launches on Solana with bridging capabilities through solswap and near intents via Zashi, enabling trading and liquidity provision on Solana.

Zashi app will support Maya protocol integration, enabling shielded ZEC swaps and multi-chain functionality through Maya's decentralized liquidity network.

The shielded $ZEC pool shows increased activity as a result of the Zashi and Keystone integration.

Zashi app has co-branding with Keystone hardware wallets, with users considering purchasing additional Keystone devices for the collaboration.

Aztec hosts educational session on October 16 at 4 pm CET featuring Zcash representative to walk through Zashi wallet and latest updates in Aztec Discord.

CrossPay integration with Zashi app allows direct ZEC withdrawals using Near intents technology, with ZEC becoming the largest volume volatile asset and adoption increasing in October.