Zcash's price plummeted 48% after a critical vulnerability was discovered, allowing for potential counterfeit coin creation.
Zcash (ZEC) experienced a staggering 48% decline, dropping to $302.48, following the revelation of a significant vulnerability in its protocol. This flaw enabled the potential for infinite and undetectable counterfeit coin creation.
The vulnerability was discovered on May 29 by security engineer Taylor Hornby, specifically in the anonymous Orchard pool.
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— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) June 4, 2026
Hornby utilized Anthropic's Opus 4.8 AI model to scrutinize the code and successfully demonstrated the bug by generating tokens on a test network.
Developers at Shielded Labs confirmed that this issue had been present since the Orchard's launch in May 2022, and due to the blockchain's privacy features, it remains unclear whether this vulnerability was exploited over the last four years.
The Zcash team implemented a fix for the bug on June 1, asserting that the complexity of the vulnerability makes it unlikely that it was exploited.
To restore confidence in the network, Shielded Labs has proposed the introduction of a new secure pool to verify the actual issuance volume of ZEC. They also plan to conduct formal verification of the Orchard code to mathematically ensure no additional vulnerabilities exist.
Notably, just a month prior, Zcash's price had surpassed $585, marking its highest level since November 2025.
