On June 5, 2026, Shielded Labs published the results of the Zcash protocol audit: security researcher Taylor Hornby discovered a critical vulnerability in the Orchard pool that allowed the creation of an unlimited number of fake ZEC tokens.
-36% ZEC on the news background
The vulnerability could have enabled the creation of an unlimited number of fake ZEC via Orchard without being detected by the network.
Taylor Hornby discovered the vulnerability using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 model in combination with traditional methods.
The Zcash Foundation reported: user funds are safe, transaction privacy was not compromised, and no instances of the vulnerability being exploited have been recorded.
Developers are now considering a network upgrade to verify the integrity of the supply, ensuring that no fake ZEC is in circulation.