ZEC drops 30% as more details released about the Zcash counterfeit vulnerability
ZEC fell sharply after details emerged of a critical counterfeiting bug in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool that could, in theory, let an attacker mint unlimited ZEC. Security engineer Taylor Hornby found the flaw on May 29, disclosed it to Zcash developers, and an emergency hard fork was activated on June 3 to patch it. The bug had existed since May 2022, and the main concern is that privacy features make it impossible to cryptographically prove whether it was ever exploited before the fix. ZEC dropped more than 30% in 24 hours, erasing over $3 billion in market value. Hornby used Claude Opus 4.8 to help review the Orchard circuit and built a working exploit that could generate counterfeit coins. Some industry figures said exploitation is unlikely, but uncertainty remains. A similar Zcash counterfeiting issue was found in 2018 and patched without losses.
