Josh Swihart's Zcash Open Development Lab raises $25 million in seed funding

Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Josh Swihart's Zcash Open Development Lab raises $25 million in seed funding The capital will be used to expand development of the Zcash (ZEC) protocol and its privacy-focused self-custodial mobile wallet, Zodl. By Francisco Rodrigues , AI Boost | Edited by Stephen Alpher Mar 9, 2026, 3:26 p.m. Make us preferred on Google (Dmytro Glazunov/Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk) What to know : Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), a new group formed by the former core team of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), has raised over $25 million in seed funding. The lab emerged after the entire ECC engineering and product team resigned in January 2026 following a governance dispute with Bootstrap, the nonprofit board that oversees ECC. The funding will be used to expand development of the Zcash protocol and its privacy-focused self-custodial mobile wallet, Zodl (formerly Zashi). Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), a new development group formed by the former core team of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), has raised more than $25 million in seed funding to continue building the privacy-focused cryptocurrency ecosystem. The round drew support from Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Cypherpunk Technologies, Chapter One, Balaji Srinivasan and several angel investors in crypto and technology. ZODL was founded by former ECC CEO Josh Swihart. The lab emerged after the entire ECC engineering and product team resigned in January following a governance dispute with Bootstrap, the nonprofit board that oversees ECC. The group said the conflict made it difficult to continue its work under the previous structure. The team has since created ZODL to continue developing core Zcash software and tools. One focus is Zodl, a self-custodial mobile wallet previously known as Zashi. The app lets users hold ZEC and send shielded transactions, which hide sender, receiver and transaction amount using zero-knowledge cryptography. Since its launch in 2024, the wallet has helped expand activity in Zcash’s shielded pool by more than 400%, according to the project. The app has also processed over $600 million in ZEC swaps since October according to the team behind it. The new funding will support hiring engineers and expanding development. ZODL says it will continue work on the Zcash protocol while building products designed to make private digital payments easier to use. ECC itself remains under Bootstrap, while the engineers who built much of the network’s core software now operate through the independent ZODL lab. The price of ZEC is up more than 8.8% in the last 24-hour period to now trade at $215, amid a wider crypto market recovery that has seen the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index move up 3% in the same period. Cypherpunk Technologies (CYPH), a digital asset treasury firm backed by the Winklevoss twins that’s focusing on ZEC , is up 2.7% in today’s trading session. Zcash Fundraising ZEC AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards . For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy . More For You Pudgy Penguins: Challenging the Pokemon and Disney Legacy in the Global IP Race By CoinDesk Research Feb 27, 2026 Commissioned by Pudgy Penguins CoinDesk Research looks into how Pudgy Penguins disrupts traditional toys market via a phygital model. With 2M+ units sold, they scale via global partnerships and events. What to know : Disrupting a Stagnant Market : Pudgy Penguins is utilizing a "Negative CAC" model to challenge the traditional $31.7B licensed toy industry by treating physical merchandise as a profitable user acquisition tool rather than just a final product. View Full Report More For You Global insurance broker Aon tests stablecoin payments with Coinbase, Paxos By Krisztian Sandor | Edited by Sheldon Reback 6 minutes ago The firm used USDC on Ethereum and PayPal USD on Solana for insurance premium payments, testing how stablecoins could reshape settlements. What to know : Aon completed a proof-of-concept using stablecoins to settle insurance premium payments, working with Coinbase and Paxos to process USDC on Ethereum and PYUSD on Solana. The firm described the pilot as the first known use of stablecoins by a major global insurance broker for premium settlement. Aon’s test comes as the $300 billion stablecoin market becomes more integrated into traditional finance after the U.S. created federal rules for stablecoin issuers with the Genius Act last year. 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