Why is ZCash crashing and is this a good time to buy?

The crypto market performed quite well overall in the first week of the new year. The US action against Venezuela and the protests in Iran have left investors feeling optimistic that change is coming. There’s only one clear loser in CoinMarketCap’s main table. ZCash, the privacy coin, has fallen by around 25% in a single week. What’s going on?

Board of directors

Well, altcoins operate just like companies, so the boards of directors of the various altcoins meet several times a year. ZCash, which was the top altcoin last year with a 500% increase, was supposed to agree on the company’s new direction at the first board meeting of the new year. However, the devs (or developers) disagreed with the rest of the board and decided to resign, leading to a minor crash earlier this week.

The entire Zcash core dev team has resigned.$ZEC is in a free fall now. pic.twitter.com/Cy4yxpMc3U

— Ted (@TedPillows) January 8, 2026

This was at first followed by a message from the devs promising they would continue supporting the coin, which led to a day of recovery. This weekend, however, the coin is falling again as long-term investors reduce their Zcash positions.

Hard Fork

What does this mean for the long term? Well, historically, after a developer’s departure, it usually takes a few months for an altcoin to recover, and in some cases (Ethereum is a good example) a hard fork follows (a split of the altcoin into two different digital currencies with two groups of developers each promoting their own coin).

⚡️ Monero back at #1 among privacy coins$XMR breaks above $465, nearing ATH and outperforming the market for weeks.

Meanwhile Zcash is in crisis:
– $ZEC –15% in a day
– Entire Electric Coin Company team resigned
– Dev activity at 2021 lows, –40% in 2 months pic.twitter.com/tYe9lB8qik

— NFT NEWS (@NFTNews_EU) January 10, 2026

Privacy coins are still very bullish this year (just look at Monero, which is continuing its year-on-year climb), so I don’t expect a complete price evaporation, but staying on the sidelines for a while to see if any news follows is probably a good idea.