The event workforce that left Electrical Coin Firm in January to launch Zcash Open Improvement Lab (ZODL) has raised over $25 million from the likes of a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures to proceed constructing the privacy-focused, self-custodial Zodl pockets.
ZODL was based by former ECC CEO Josh Swihart and consists of the complete engineering and product workforce that beforehand labored on the Zodl pockets at ECC. They resigned on account of disputes with Bootstrap, the nonprofit that oversees ECC, over how Zcash ought to perform as a privateness protocol.
ZODL stated in an X publish on Monday that crypto-focused funding corporations Paradigm, Winklevoss Capital, Cypherpunk Applied sciences, Maelstrom, and Chapter One have been among the many different individuals within the $25 million funding spherical.
Former Coinbase chief know-how officer Balaji Srinivasan, Silicon Valley investor David Friedberg and Dragonfly managing associate Haseeb Qureshi additionally contributed.
ZODL stated the widespread backing “displays robust conviction from among the most revered buyers in crypto, not solely in privateness as a precept, however within the continued progress of the Zcash ecosystem,” including it might use the funds to broaden its engineering workforce.
The open-source Zodl pockets is likely one of the primary infrastructures powering the Zcash ecosystem.
Zodl pockets was initially launched by ECC below Swihart’s management as Zashi earlier than ZODL renamed it to Zodl pockets in February.
Zcash jumps practically 10% over 24 hours
Zcash (ZEC) was one of many better-performing privateness tokens final yr, rising practically tenfold from $55.86 to $527.84 amid renewed curiosity in privacy-focused protocols.
Whereas ZEC has been impacted by the broader crypto market pullback to start out 2026, it elevated 4.1% to $217.80 on information of the most recent funding spherical, CoinGecko information reveals.
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ZODL stated the Zodl pockets facilitated greater than $600 million in ZEC swaps since October 2025, whereas noting that the Zcash shielded pool has grown by over 400% since its launch in 2024.
The Zcash shielded pool is the protocol’s primary function to combine transactions so particulars of the sender, receiver and quantity stay hidden and untraceable.
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