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In late October 2026, Zcash (ZEC) reached a key milestone: the coin's price consolidated around $1,280, and its market capitalization hit $21.8 billion. However, the rapid rally was overshadowed by a sharp split within the community.
The trigger of the crisis was not a technical problem but a revolt of large investors over the targeted spending of capital.
Money is there, consensus is not. Why supporters of crypto-anarchism and capitalism fell out
Zcash Community Grants (ZCG), the organization that distributes part of the miners' block reward, launched the Zcash Adoption Pool program. The fund directed grants toward the integration of vulnerable groups like refugees without access to banks.
The decision sparked protest from major players, since ZCG's charter allows it to distribute multimillion-dollar budgets bypassing the coinholder vote. The "whale" revolt moved into the practical realm: a major holder under the pseudonym "big z" publicly announced a full sell-off of his ZEC holdings.
According to him, the fund should finance cryptography, not political manifestos.
The local conflict quickly grew into a debate about the nature of decentralized money, which industry heavyweights joined. Developer Sean Bowe published a manifesto on the future of ZCG, in which he called for revising the fund's financing due to the anomalous surge in the ZEC price.
The initiative was unexpectedly supported by legendary investor Naval Ravikant, who laconically snapped that a $50 million cap is more than enough for community grants.
Meanwhile, the fund's activists continue to insist that private money is a "humanitarian imperative" and a public good.
However, Gemini exchange co-founder Tyler Winklevoss harshly challenged this thesis: a commercial network with transaction fees cannot be a public good. Winklevoss compared ZCG's actions to "taxation without representation" and called for leaving the development of Zcash to the free market.
The pressure on the price from the whales' coin sell-off coincided with the launch of direct ZEC deposits on the decentralized Rujira Network on October 29.
After failing to break above $1,390, the price settled in the $1,220–1,245 $range, still well below the all-time high of $1,698 set in late September. The fundamental dispute over who should control Zcash's millions remains open.