Zcash Counterfeit Exploit Crisis

A critical vulnerability discovered in Zcash's privacy protocol — capable of enabling unlimited counterfeit coin minting through hidden transactions — has triggered a 30%+ collapse in ZEC and erased over $5 billion in market value, forcing a sweeping reassessment of cryptographic security risk across privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. The AI-assisted discovery of this four-year-old bug is accelerating investor repricing of exploit and counterparty risk premiums across zero-knowledge proof networks and privacy coin infrastructure.