Zcash Spinout ZODL Raises $25M After Electric Coin Company Exodus

ZODL, an independent development lab created by former Electric Coin Company engineers, has raised more than US$25 million (AU$35.25 million) in seed funding to continue building privacy infrastructure for the Zcash network. The organisation emerged after the entire engineering and product team resigned from Electric Coin Company in January 2026 following a governance dispute with Bootstrap, the nonprofit board overseeing the organisation.

The disagreement focused on development plans relating to the Zashi wallet and potential changes to the ZEC protocol. Josh Swihart, who previously led Electric Coin Company as chief executive, subsequently founded ZODL and brought the same engineering team together within the new organisation. Operating independently, the group now continues development of tools designed to support private digital payments within the Zcash ecosystem.

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ZODL Builds on Zashi Technology 

Its central product is the Zodl wallet, a self-custodial mobile application built on the Zashi codebase introduced in 2024. The wallet enables users to hold ZEC and carry out shielded transactions that hide the sender, recipient and amount using zero-knowledge cryptography.

The team says the wallet has processed more than US$600 million (AU$846 million) in ZEC swaps since October. The application has also contributed to growth in the Orchard shielded pool, which expanded from roughly one million ZEC to around four million ZEC during 2025.

Investors in the seed round include Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Chapter One and Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom, alongside several individual backers. Cypherpunk Technologies invested US$5 million (AU$7.05 million) in the company, stating the move aligns with its objective of supporting technologies that guarantee privacy online.

ZODL said the funding will support hiring engineers and advancing development of both Zcash protocol infrastructure and privacy-focused applications.

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