Wang Chun, co-founder of mining pool F2Pool, published a critique of Zcash amid the crypto asset's price surge. Over the past week, ZEC gained approximately 31%, surpassing $1,000 and entering the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, which reached $19 billion. At the time of writing, ZEC is trading around $1,130. Despite the rally, Wang Chun described the current surge as a "narrative bet," emphasizing that a high market valuation does not indicate the fundamental value of a project. In his view, the mere presence of a coin in the top 10 does not mean it fulfills the functions of leading platforms like Solana or Hyperliquid, as reported by Incrypted.
Wang's criticism touched on several key aspects of Zcash. First and foremost, he criticized the initial ZEC distribution model. During the first four years of the Founders' Reward program, 20% of each block reward was directed to founders, employees, advisors, and early investors — totaling up to 2.1 million ZEC, which amounted to 10% of the maximum supply of 21 million coins. The F2Pool co-founder also pointed to issues with the project's privacy model: since the use of shielded transactions remained optional, privacy became a marketing narrative. A separate element of his criticism involved a conflict within the development team. In January 2026, the core Electric Coin Company team left the project following disagreements with the board of the Bootstrap nonprofit. Additionally, Wang highlighted a vulnerability in the Orchard shielded pool discovered in late May 2026. The bug theoretically allowed the creation of unbacked ZEC in a way that made exploitation impossible to detect on the blockchain. In July 2026, protection was activated through the Ironwood upgrade, introducing a new shielded pool and a supply integrity verification mechanism.
Zcash's growth accelerated in the second half of August. On August 24, ZEC rose more than 60% in a week, peaking above $880. This period also coincided with the conversion of the Grayscale Zcash Trust into a spot ETF, which began trading on NYSE Arca on August 25. By September 4, the asset's price exceeded $1,000, entering the top 10 with a market cap of over $17 billion. According to CoinGecko, in the 24 hours preceding Wang's critique, ZEC lost approximately 4%, but remains roughly 31% above its level from a week ago. The F2Pool co-founder's remarks reflect the skepticism of part of the crypto community toward the fundamental basis of such rapid growth, despite Zcash being perceived as a project with a particular emphasis on privacy.
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This material is prepared exclusively for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.