Arthur Hayes Sells All ZEC After Orchard Exploit

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, posted on X that he sold his entire Zcash (ZEC) holding after researcher Taylor Hornby disclosed a vulnerability in the Orchard shielded pool on June 29 and Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox confirmed the issue.

Hornby’s disclosure showed the bug could have allowed an attacker to mint undetectable counterfeit ZEC inside the Orchard pool. Hayes wrote that while new counterfeit minting was “extremely unlikely,” it “cannot be formally cryptographically proved impossible,” and added “the Holy Trinity is dead,” referring to a trio of bets that included Zcash as the privacy component.

Trading reacted quickly. ZEC fell about 47% in the day after the disclosure, dropping to as low as $264.80 after earlier rising above $600 in 2026 and briefly surpassing Monero by market capitalization.

Hayes also exited positions in HYPE and NEAR and moved capital to Worldcoin, citing an expected wave of artificial intelligence initial public offerings and the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. Days prior to the liquidations he had placed a $100,000 charity wager that HYPE would outperform any top-10 coin by year-end.

Zcash developers issued a patch that closes the Orchard vulnerability. The disclosed flaw prompted questions about how supply verification works for shielded transactions and has led to further technical review by the project team.

Traders and holders are awaiting additional audits and communications from Zcash maintainers. Market recovery for ZEC will depend on further technical assurances and any protocol changes the development team implements.