F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang criticized Zcash (ZEC) on Sept. 8, 2026, as the asset’s price rally carried it into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. His comments challenged whether Zcash’s valuation reflected the project’s fundamental value after ZEC gained about 31% over the previous week.

“Zcash’s latest rally is a narrative bid. A big market cap does not mean a coin earned its place. Sitting near Solana and Hyperliquid on a ranking list does not mean Zcash does what those two do,” Wang said in an X post.

Wang pointed to ZEC’s initial distribution model. During the first four years, the Founders’ Reward allocated 20% of each block reward to founders, employees, advisers and early investors. Those recipients were entitled to as much as 2.1 million ZEC, equivalent to 10% of the maximum supply of 21 million coins.

After the Founders’ Reward ended, Zcash replaced it with a mechanism to finance the project’s development. That funding system was subsequently revised several times.

Wang also criticized Zcash’s privacy model. In his view, the historically optional use of shielded transactions meant the project’s privacy had largely become a marketing narrative.

He also cited a governance conflict involving Electric Coin Company, or ECC. In January 2026, the team behind Zcash’s key developer left the company following disagreements with the board of the nonprofit Bootstrap. The parties gave different accounts of the dispute while saying it did not affect the Zcash protocol.

Orchard vulnerability

Wang referred to a vulnerability discovered in the Orchard shielded pool in late May 2026. In theory, the flaw could have allowed the creation of unbacked ZEC in a manner that would make exploitation impossible to determine conclusively from blockchain records.

Zcash activated its Ironwood upgrade in July, introducing a new shielded pool and a supply-integrity verification mechanism. Developers said they had found no evidence that the Orchard vulnerability was exploited.

In a separate post, Wang said he blocked Zcash representatives about six years ago after a team member repeatedly confused the EST and EDT time zones. He called the move one of the best decisions he had made and compared the episode with BlockFi’s incorrect reward payouts in 2021, although that incident was not directly related to Zcash.

ZEC price rally

Zcash’s rally accelerated in the second half of August. By Aug. 24, ZEC had gained more than 60% over seven days and briefly traded above $880. Factors cited for the advance included expectations that the Grayscale Zcash Trust could be converted into a spot exchange-traded fund, a potential short squeeze and increasing interest in privacy coins.

Trading in the fund began on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25. ZEC surpassed $1,000 by Sept. 4, when it was up more than 30% over the previous week. The asset entered the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with its value exceeding $17 billion.

At the time of writing, ZEC was trading near $1,130. It had fallen about 4% over 24 hours but remained approximately 31% higher over seven days, according to CoinGecko.

Zcash had a market capitalization of about $19 billion and ranked ninth in CoinGecko’s standings. During the day, ZEC traded in a range of roughly $1,115 to $1,210.

Source: Incrypted