Monero overtook Zcash as the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by market capitalization after governance disputes at Electric Coin Company triggered a 15% price drop Thursday and raised questions about development continuity for the competing protocol.
What Happened: Leadership Exodus
The entire Electric Coin Company team resigned Thursday following a dispute with its parent nonprofit board. Josh Swihart, ECC chief executive, described the departure as constructive discharge by the Bootstrap board.
Developers formed a new company after the dispute.
ZEC dropped approximately 15% on the day before recovering slightly, extending a pullback from November highs that had briefly pushed the token into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value.
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Why It Matters: Privacy Competition
Monero now holds an $8.4 billion market capitalization compared to Zcash's $7.1 billion. Trading around $460 Thursday, Monero sits close to the $490 level it briefly reached in late December.
The shift marks a reversal from mid-to-late 2025 when traders favored ZEC as their preferred privacy play through wallet integrations supporting shielded transactions.
Andreessen Horowitz's crypto division stated this week that privacy will serve as the key competitive advantage in 2026.
Monero faced its own challenges during that period, including its largest recorded block reorganization in September.
The incident renewed concerns about reorg risk and mining concentration, though it did not disrupt protocol operations over the long term. Traders are monitoring how the ECC team's departure affects development timelines for protocol upgrades and ecosystem growth initiatives.
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