Developers of the cryptocurrency Zcash have announced the raising of $25 million in funding for the further development of a new private crypto wallet. The funding will support the development of the Zodl wallet project — a tool focused on enabling confidential transactions on the network.
Who invested in the project
The funding round was backed by several major players in the cryptocurrency and venture capital markets. Among them are investment firms Paradigm, Winklevoss Capital, Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, and Chapter One.
In addition to institutional investors, well-known figures from the technology and crypto industries also participated. These inсlude former CTO of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange Balaji Srinivasan, Silicon Valley venture investor David Friedberg, and Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi.
According to the project team, the funds raised will primarily be used to expand the engineering division and accelerate the development of new wallet features.
History of the wallet
The Zodl wallet project was originally created as part of the infrastructure of the Zcash cryptocurrency ecosystem. Initially, the wallet was developed by Electric Coin Company (ECC) and was introduced under the name Zashi wallet.
The development was led by ECC CEO Josh Swihart. However, in February 2026 he left the company along with his team. After their departure, the developers continued working on the product outside ECC and renamed it Zodl wallet.
What makes the new wallet different
The main feature of the wallet is an increased level of transaction privacy. The application uses transaction mixing technology, making transfer data virtually untraceable.
This means that information about the sender, recipient, and transfer amount is hidden from external observers and blockchain analytics. This approach aligns with the core philosophy of the Zcash cryptocurrency, which was originally designed as a payment systеm with enhanced privacy.
New development company
After the team left ECC, further development of the wallet was transferred to a new organization — Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), founded by Josh Swihart.
The company includes engineers, product designers, and infrastructure specialists who previously worked on the wallet within Electric Coin Company. In fact, the team remained almost entirely intact and continued developing the project as an independent product.
Growing interest in Zcash
Following the news about the investment, the market also reacted with a rise in the price of the Zcash cryptocurrency. Over the past day, the coin’s price increased by nearly 10% and reached approximately $224.
Overall, the past year has been quite successful for ZEC. Amid growing interest in confidential blockchain protocol technologies, the asset’s price increased almost tenfold — from $55.86 to $527.84 at its peak.
Developers also note active usage of the wallet itself. According to their data, since October 2025 users have conducted swaps in ZEC worth more than $600 million through the Zodl wallet.
Conflict within the ecosystem
The project relaunch occurred amid serious disagreements within the Zcash developer community. Earlier this year, tensions escalated between the wallet team and the non-profit organization Bootstrap Project, which oversees the activities of Electric Coin Company.
The dispute concerned the future development of the protocol and the role that privacy should play in the architecture of the Zcash network. As a result, the development team decided to leave the company and continue working on the wallet independently. Along with them, the Zodl wallet project was removed from the ECC structure and transferred to the new organization.
As a result, the wallet received a new team, a new name, and separate funding which, according to the developers, will accelerate the development of private crypto payment technologies.
