Catenaa, Tuesday, January 13, 2025-The entire Electric Coin Company team, responsible for the privacy-focused blockchain Zcash, resigned last Wednesday following a governance clash with its nonprofit parent board, Bootstrap.
CEO Josh Swihart said the staff was constructively discharged, citing changes to employment terms.
Swihart announced the developers are forming a new company to continue advancing what he called “unstoppable private money.”
He emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself remains operational despite the departures. Bootstrap, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, oversees ECC and supports Zcash’s ecosystem. Swihart named several board members as misaligned with the project’s mission.
Constructive discharge occurs when employer actions force resignations by creating a hostile or untenable work environment, according to the US Department of Labor.
Swihart said the ECC team faced such conditions, prompting the mass exit.
The resignations follow earlier leadership changes, including Swihart’s ascension to CEO in December 2023 after founder Zooko Wilcox stepped down, and board member Peter Van Valkenburgh leaving the Zcash Foundation in January 2025.
ECC also reorganized in December, merging engineering teams under a single lead and consolidating marketing operations to align with user experience goals.
Zcash saw a surge late last year, briefly surpassing a $10 billion market capitalization and entering the top-20 crypto rankings. The token has since declined, trading near $456, down 8% in 24 hours but up 11% over the past month. ZEC remains about 92% below its all-time high of $5,941.80 set in October 2016.
