Zcash price crashed more than 45% after researchers disclosed a bug that could have allowed unlimited counterfeit ZEC▼$341.36 to be minted.
ZEC price crashed more than 45% in just one day after researchers disclosed a bug in Orchard, Zcash’s private transaction system, that could have allowed someone to mint an unlimited amount of fake ZEC inside the privacy pool.
Data from Bitcoin Foundation’s price tracking page shows ZEC trades around $316.08, down 45.34% on the day, falling back to early April levels.
The selloff came after Shielded Labs, an independent group that supports the Zcash ecosystem, said security researcher Taylor Hornby found a serious bug in Orchard, Zcash’s private transaction pool.
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Orchard enables shielded transactions, allowing users to send ZEC with details hidden via zero-knowledge proofs. The bug scared many as it could have potentially let someone create an infinite amount of ZEC tokens within Zcash’s private pool without anyone noticing it.
According to Shielded Labs, Hornby found the issue on May 29 while reviewing the protocol and then reported it to engineers at Zcash Open Development Lab, the team that works on Zcash protocol software.
Shielded Labs added that Hornby successfully generated unlimited fake ZEC in a controlled test environment.
Zcash Bug Was Fixed, Developers Say No Exploit Found
The bug has already been fixed, according to Zcash developers. A post on the Zcash Community Forum said the issue was reported on May 29, confirmed by engineers and fixed through new software releases and a coordinated network upgrade.
Developers also said there’s no evidence the bug was exploited and no evidence that fake ZEC was created.
Shielded Labs added that Hornby found the glitch using Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 model along with some custom AI tools and regular security testing. They tested the flaw to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands first. While Hornby thinks it’s unlikely the bug was taken advantage of, proving it from the blockchain alone is problematic.
Because of that, Shielded Labs is now discussing another Zcash upgrade that would move coins out of Orchard into a new pool to verify that no counterfeit ZEC exists there.
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