Zcash Flaw Sparks Monero Audit Interest as Privacy Coin Debate Heats Up

TheNewsCryptoОпубликовано 2026-06-06Обновлено 2026-06-06

Введение

A significant security flaw in Zcash's Orchard privacy pool was disclosed by non-profit developer Shielded Labs, causing ZEC's price to drop 38% in 24 hours before a modest recovery. The vulnerability, discovered on May 29th by security researcher Taylor Hornby using Anthropic's Opus 4.8 AI model, could have allowed an attacker to create an unlimited supply of counterfeit ZEC tokens undetected. This event has intensified the privacy coin debate. In response, Hornby announced plans to audit Monero (XMR), a leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency that, unlike Zcash, defaults to hiding all transaction data. Hornby expressed confidence in finding vulnerabilities in such privacy coins. The disclosure has cast fresh security scrutiny on the sector.

After non-profit developer Shielded Labs revealed a serious weakness in the blockchain’s Orchard privacy pool, which could have jeopardized the integrity of the token supply, Zcash (ZEC) fell 38% in 24 hours, speeding up the drop. Recent trading for ZEC has been around $361, with a low of $290, and the price has made some modest recovery of around 8% in the last 24 hours as per data from CMC.

Fresh Security Scrutiny

On Thursday night, Shielded Labs released a comprehensive disclosure about X, exposing a security hole that, if used, might have enabled an attacker to secretly produce an infinite supply of fake ZEC tokens. Imagine someone sneaking into the Federal Reserve’s dollar printing machine and making off with a bunch of additional cash; the only difference is that not even the Fed would know it happened.

The flaw was found on May 29th by Taylor Hornby, a security expert hired by Shielded Labs in April 2026 to find protocol weaknesses before bad guys could. The Orchard circuit is the cryptographic scheme supporting Zcash’s most sophisticated privacy pool; Hornby performed a focused evaluation of it using Anthropic’s newly published Opus 4.8 AI model.

One of the tokens that security researcher Taylor Hornby plans to audit next is privacy coin Monero. Hornby utilized Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model to discover a serious flaw in Zcash. Hornby said, “Absolutely!” when asked on X whether he could find vulnerabilities in private coins like Monero. Adding that, Monero will be put up to my list of things to audit.

Unlike Zcash, which gives users the option to be either visible or shielded, Monero (XMR) defaults to hiding transaction data and is one of the biggest privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

Highlighted Crypto News Today:

Worldcoin Falls Terribly as Arthur Hayes Dumps WLD

TagsAltcoinMoneroZcash

Связанные с этим вопросы

QWhat was the key event that triggered the drop in Zcash's price and sparked interest in auditing Monero?

AThe key event was the disclosure by Shielded Labs of a serious security flaw in Zcash's Orchard privacy pool, which could have allowed an attacker to secretly create an unlimited supply of fake ZEC tokens.

QWho discovered the critical vulnerability in Zcash's Orchard circuit, and what tool did they use?

AThe vulnerability was discovered by security expert Taylor Hornby, who was hired by Shielded Labs. He found the flaw using Anthropic's newly published Opus 4.8 AI model.

QHow did the disclosure of the Zcash flaw specifically impact its price (ZEC) in the short term?

AFollowing the disclosure, Zcash (ZEC) fell 38% within 24 hours, reaching a low of around $290. It later saw a modest recovery of about 8% in the subsequent 24 hours.

QWhat is the fundamental difference between Monero's (XMR) and Zcash's (ZEC) approach to privacy, as mentioned in the article?

AThe fundamental difference is that Monero defaults to hiding all transaction data by design, whereas Zcash gives users an option to choose between transparent (visible) or shielded (private) transactions.

QWhat is the next project that security researcher Taylor Hornby plans to audit, and what was his confident response regarding finding vulnerabilities in it?

ATaylor Hornby plans to audit the privacy coin Monero next. When asked on X if he could find vulnerabilities in privacy coins like Monero, he responded, 'Absolutely!'

Похожее

Worldcoin Falls Terribly as Arthur Hayes Dumps WLD

Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom and BitMEX co-founder, announced on June 6, 2026, that his firm sold its entire Worldcoin (WLD) holdings, reversing his previous day's statement about continuing to hold the token. His tweet, stating "Dumped $WLD. I'm out," triggered a significant market reaction, contributing to a 23% single-day price drop for WLD. Hayes is a noted crypto influencer, and his move followed Maelstrom's recent liquidation of its Zcash holdings. Despite a recent strong performance, Worldcoin's price fell to $0.4224, down over 23% in 24 hours following the announcement. The article also notes the unrelated context of SpaceX's upcoming market debut.

TheNewsCrypto1 ч. назад

Worldcoin Falls Terribly as Arthur Hayes Dumps WLD

TheNewsCrypto1 ч. назад

House Committee Unveils 7 Crypto Tax Drafts—A Major Overhaul Of How Digital Assets Are Taxed

The US House Ways and Means Committee has released seven crypto tax discussion drafts, marking a major legislative effort to clarify how digital assets are taxed. This initiative, backed by committee leadership, aims to establish clearer rules on the timing and treatment of taxes for activities like crypto mining, staking rewards, and stablecoin transactions, including potential capital gains exemptions. The package also seeks to extend wash sale restrictions to digital assets. Lawmakers are working with the Treasury, Commerce Department, and White House on the measures, while Senate tax writers are also developing their own legislation, signaling a move toward a more unified approach to crypto taxation.

bitcoinist3 ч. назад

House Committee Unveils 7 Crypto Tax Drafts—A Major Overhaul Of How Digital Assets Are Taxed

bitcoinist3 ч. назад

TechFlow Intelligence Bureau: Chip Stocks Lose Trillions in a Single Day, Bitcoin Falls Below $60,000, US-Iran Conflict Escalates

**Daily Tech & Markets Roundup: AI Advances, Market Turmoil, and Geopolitical Tensions** **AI / LLMs**: Anthropic's internal report on AI self-improvement sparked serious discussions about Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI). Meanwhile, debate continues on AI coding tools after Claude was accused of introducing bugs into the rsync codebase. In positive news, DeepSeek V4 Flash impressed in local deployment tests, and GitHub Copilot now supports custom endpoints for local models. A surprising research turn suggests removing chain-of-thought prompting can sometimes improve LLM performance. **Crypto / Web3**: Bitcoin plunged below $60,000, with its RSI hitting levels last seen during the COVID-19 crash, driven by strong U.S. jobs data reviving interest rate hike fears. Discussions highlight Ethereum DeFi's continued lack of a smooth consumer payment layer. **Chips / Hardware**: Chip stocks suffered a massive sell-off, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index posting its worst single-day drop in six years, erasing over a trillion dollars in value. Marvell, Micron, AMD, and Intel were among the biggest losers. **Tech Companies**: A leaked Microsoft document revealing goals to make Copilot "addictive" drew criticism. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman left Microsoft's board to focus full-time on his AI agent startup, Manus. Google was revealed to be paying SpaceX $920 million monthly for AI training compute. **Markets & Macro**: A blowout U.S. jobs report (172k vs. 80k expected) crushed hopes for near-term rate cuts, sending Treasury yields soaring and triggering a broad market sell-off. CEOs from Kraft, McDonald's, and Whirlpool simultaneously warned U.S. consumers are exhausting their savings. **Geopolitics**: U.S.-Iran tensions escalated with missile/drone interceptions and U.S. strikes on Iranian radar sites, keeping the critical Strait of Hormuz largely closed since late February and posing ongoing oil supply risks. **The Bottom Line**: The strong jobs data acted as a single trigger for correlated sell-offs across equities, crypto, and chips. Underlying the volatility is a stark contradiction between robust employment data and warnings of consumer weakness, alongside geopolitical risks that could reignite inflation, leaving markets to price in a fraught macro outlook with no clear "soft landing" path.

marsbit5 ч. назад

TechFlow Intelligence Bureau: Chip Stocks Lose Trillions in a Single Day, Bitcoin Falls Below $60,000, US-Iran Conflict Escalates

marsbit5 ч. назад

Solana Treasury Giant Sends 455,784 SOL To Coinbase Prime: Selling Move?

Forward Industries, the largest corporate holder of Solana (SOL), has deposited 455,784 SOL (worth approximately $31.87 million) to Coinbase Prime. This move is seen as a potential sign the company may be preparing to sell, as its treasury strategy is currently at a significant loss. The firm accumulated 6.83 million SOL at an average price of $232.08 in 2025, but with SOL now trading around $65, its holdings are valued at just $452 million, representing a steep decline. This action follows similar pressures on other major crypto treasury firms, like Bitcoin holder Strategy, which are also deep in the red due to the broader market downturn. Solana's price has fallen over 19% in the past week.

bitcoinist5 ч. назад

Solana Treasury Giant Sends 455,784 SOL To Coinbase Prime: Selling Move?

bitcoinist5 ч. назад

It Took Me a Year to See the Bitter Truth About Agent Payments

After a year building infrastructure for the Agent economy, engaging with major players like Stripe, Visa, and Coinbase, the author shares a sobering analysis of the current state of Agent payments. The core finding is a stark lack of genuine, immediate demand across most envisioned use cases. The article breaks down four key market segments: 1. **Agent-to-Merchant (Consumer Shopping):** For most product categories (e.g., clothing, electronics), conversational AI shopping is a step backwards from visual e-commerce interfaces. While agents excel at understanding needs, they can't replace side-by-side product comparison. Real merchant interest is defensive "Agent Engine Optimization," not driven by current customer demand. Potential exists for high-frequency, low-decision purchases (like food delivery) or navigating complex store UIs, but these require massive B2C distribution channels dominated by giants like Amazon. 2. **Agent-to-API (Developer Services):** Developers already have subscriptions and billing relationships for APIs (compute, data). Prepaid balances solve micro-payment issues for low transaction volumes. A deeper structural problem is that major SaaS vendors' business models rely on enterprise contracts, resisting granular pay-per-call pricing. While protocols like MPP and x402 serve the long tail of niche services, this market is small and developers are historically low-willingness-to-pay. 3. **Agent-to-Agent:** This remains largely theoretical with minimal transaction volume. While it represents a long-term bet on a fundamentally new transaction infrastructure (sub-second, micro-penny to million-dollar, multi-party settlements), it does not constitute a present market. 4. **Agent-to-Finance:** This is the only category with existing, paying demand. Integrating AI into financial workflows (trading, portfolio management) is a natural evolution and enables new capabilities like autonomous rebalancing. However, competition favors established, regulated institutions. The "real problem" is not moving money between agents, but the broader challenge of **coordination**—orchestrating work between agents and humans, verifying outcomes, and settling results. Payment is just one component of settlement, which is itself part of coordination. Companies that solve the coordination layer will subsume payment, not the other way around. While well-funded incumbents build defensively for a long-term future, startups must find where the market is today—which, for the author's team, lies outside these four categories in an area of real, growing, and underserved activity.

marsbit5 ч. назад

It Took Me a Year to See the Bitter Truth About Agent Payments

marsbit5 ч. назад

Торговля

Спот
Фьючерсы
活动图片

Популярные категорииright-arrow

Популярные тегиright-arrow