BlockBeats report: On June 5, the privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) faced massive market selling pressure after a security vulnerability capable of causing infinite minting was exposed, causing its price to drop over 50% in a single day. The incident quickly sparked widespread debate within the crypto industry, with several prominent investors and analysts questioning the future prospects of the privacy coin sector. Although the development team emphasized that the likelihood of the vulnerability being exploited is extremely low, market concerns have centered on whether this issue undermines Zcash’s most fundamental value proposition—the credibility of its supply cap.
During this ZEC price rally, KOL Arthur Hayes, who frequently issued trading signals, stated earlier today that he has sold all his ZEC holdings due to the Orchard Pool vulnerability. When he read about the vulnerability yesterday, he did not realize how it would undermine his understanding of ZEC’s narrative, but the subsequent 30% drop in ZEC prompted him to reconsider and decide to take full profits. Although he believes the likelihood of inflation is extremely low, he acknowledges that it cannot be cryptographically proven impossible. He will continue to reassess his position, and if his assumptions are proven wrong, he plans to re-enter the market, hoping for a lower price at that time.
As the leader of Cypherpunk Technologies, the largest ZEC treasury, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss adopted a more composed stance toward this incident, stating that vulnerabilities are inevitable in software. The essence of software security is an endless race between good and evil, where the side of justice must always stay at least one step ahead. AI has not changed the fundamental nature of this cat-and-mouse game—it has only accelerated it. Every piece of software must participate in this race; there is no escape, and nowhere in the world is there a team better suited to run this race than the Zcash team.
As of May 13, 2026, Cypherpunk holds 314,185.70 ZEC at an average purchase price of $337.86, representing approximately 1.88% of Zcash’s total circulating supply. Ten days ago, Cypherpunk had a paper profit of $100 million; if no sales have been made since, the current paper loss is $11.89 million.
Notably, ZEC's recent surge during this bull market was initially sparked by renowned Silicon Valley angel investor Naval Ravikant publicly stating on X that "ZCash can be viewed as an alternative to Bitcoin." Although the tweet has not been deleted, Naval has not mentioned ZEC since.