Zcash (ZEC) Price: Developers Raise $25M as Token Jumps Nearly 10%

TLDR

• Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) raised $25M+ in seed funding
• Backers include a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and Paradigm
• ZODL was founded after a split from Electric Coin Company in January
• ZEC price jumped nearly 10% in 24 hours following the news
• Zodl wallet has processed over $600M in ZEC swaps since October 2025

Zcash (ZEC) jumped nearly 10% in 24 hours after the team behind its main wallet announced a major funding round.

The Zcash Open Development Lab, known as ZODL, raised more than $25 million in seed funding. The announcement was made on Monday.

The round was backed by some of the biggest names in crypto venture capital. Investors include Paradigm, a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and Winklevoss Capital. Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, and Chapter One also participated.

Angel investors joined as well. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, investor David Friedberg, and Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi all contributed to the round.

ZODL was founded by Josh Swihart, the former CEO of Electric Coin Company. He left ECC in January along with the full engineering and product team.

The split happened due to disputes with Bootstrap, the nonprofit that oversees ECC. The disagreement was over how Zcash should operate as a privacy protocol.

What ZODL Is Building

The team is focused on the Zodl wallet, a self-custodial mobile app for Zcash. It was originally launched under ECC as Zashi in 2024, then renamed to Zodl after the team moved on.

The wallet supports shielded transactions, which hide the sender, receiver, and amount. This is the core privacy feature of the Zcash protocol.

ZODL said the Zodl wallet helped grow the Zcash shielded pool by over 400% since launch. The wallet has also processed more than $600 million in ZEC swaps since October 2025.

ZODL plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering team and continue developing the wallet and Zcash protocol.

ZEC Price Reaction

ZEC rose 4.1% to $217.80 immediately following the funding news, according to CoinGecko data. Over the full 24-hour period, the token was up 9.8%.

Zcash was one of the top-performing privacy tokens in the prior year. It rose from around $55.86 to a high of $527.84, nearly tenfold.

ZEC had pulled back at the start of 2026 along with the broader crypto market. The funding announcement helped push the price back up.

The Zcash shielded pool, which mixes transactions to keep them private, has grown over 400% since the Zodl wallet launched in 2024.

ZODL stated the funding reflects “strong conviction from some of the most respected investors in crypto.”

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