The privacy-focused cryptocurrency ZCash (ZEC) plummeted 19% on January 8, 2026, following the shock resignation of its entire core development team. The exodus, led by Electric Coin Company (ECC) CEO Josh Swihart, comes amid a broader market cooling that saw Bitcoin (BTC) lose its $90,000 psychological floor.
The ZEC Exodus and the “Bootstrap” Dispute
The catalyst for the ZEC sell-off was a public fallout between the Electric Coin Company and its nonprofit parent organization, Bootstrap. Swihart accused the Bootstrap board—including high-profile members like Zaki Manian—of “unilateral changes” to employment terms and a “significant deviation” from the project’s original privacy mission.
While the development team has promised to form a new, independent company to continue the ZCash mission, the market responded with a sharp breakdown below the $450 technical support level. In an exclusive interview, ZEC bull Mert emphasized that while the protocol’s code remains intact, the “reputational and structural vacuum” left by the team’s departure creates a high-volatility environment for holders.
Institutional Infrastructure Gains Ground
Despite the turmoil in altcoins, institutional adoption of blockchain rails continues to accelerate:
- JPMorgan (Kinexys): The banking giant announced a migration of JPM Coin to the Canton Network, a privacy-focused institutional Layer 1. This marks JPMorgan’s second major blockchain expansion following its 2025 Base deployment.
- Barclays & Ubyx: Barclays has taken an equity stake in Ubyx, a U.S.-based stablecoin settlement startup. The move signals a shift toward “many-to-many” clearing systems that allow regulated banks to move digital assets across different issuers.
- World Liberty Financial: The Trump-linked venture has applied for a National Trust Bank Charter via its subsidiary, seeking federal authority to issue and custody its USD1 stablecoin.
Network Fragility: Starknet’s Four-Hour Blackout
Infrastructure reliability remains a hurdle for Layer 2 scaling. On January 5, Starknet suffered a total halt in block production. Developers traced the outage to a “logic mismatch” bug in the blockifier, which caused a state-writing error. Although the network resumed operations after four hours and no funds were lost, the event underscored the ongoing “liveness” risks in high-performance ZK-rollups.
