Zcash dropped 42.2% in just 24 hours after a critical bug in its Orchard Privacy Pool was disclosed, having gone undetected for four years. The vulnerability allowed unlimited and undetectable minting of fake ZEC tokens; it was discovered on May 29 with the help of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 AI model.
As Zcash (ZEC) price plunged over 40% over the past two days, the fear of a potential crash below $100 remained palpable.
Here is the puzzle. On May 29, 2026, a security researcher hired by Zcash developers found a critical bug in the network's Orchard privacy pool, a flaw that could have let an attacker mint unlimited, undetectable counterfeit ZEC.
Hayes said he would reconsider his stance if his assumptions that an exploit is still possible prove to be incorrect.
Zcash Founder Warns Orchard Bug Could Have Created Undetectable Counterfeit ZEC
Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) crashed as low as 50% over the past 36 hours after Shielded Labs disclosed a critical vulnerability allowing unlimited counterfeit ZEC creation—a bug sitting undetected for four years until Anthropic's Claude AI found it. Security Engineer Used Claude Opus 4.8 To Find The Bug On May 29 On May 29, Shielded Labs security engineer Taylor Hornby discovered the Orchard circuit vulnerability using Anthropic's newly released Opus 4.8 model and immediately shared findings with engineers at the Zcash Open Development Lab.
Zcash lost more than $5 billion in market value after its developers, using Anthropic's Claude AI, discovered a long-running flaw in one of its privacy systems that could have enabled counterfeit tokens to be created without easy detection.
An Orchard vulnerability that allowed undetectable counterfeiting of ZEC in its shielded pool has reignited debate over privacy coins.
Arthur Hayes has sold his entire ZEC position following the Zcash Orchard pool exploit, declaring that “the Holy Trinity is dead.” The high-profile exit has deepened a selloff that has knocked ZEC down nearly 47% over the past day.
The privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash experienced a devastating price collapse following the revelation of a critical security vulnerability by Shielded Labs, a nonprofit developer organization. The announcement detailed a dangerous flaw that had remained hidden within the protocol's Orchard shielded pool infrastructure for nearly four years, dating back to May 2022.
Zcash has experienced one of its biggest selloffs in recent memory as a result of investors' widespread concern over a critical Orchard pool vulnerability.
ZEC drops to $272.79 after an Orchard pool bug, emergency forks, and Arthur Hayes's full exit shake markets.