Zooko Wilcox stepped down as chief executive of Electric Coin Company on December 18, 2023, the Bootstrap Project's board of directors wrote in a blog post the same day1. Josh Swihart, who had spent five and a half years at the company and had served as its SVP of Growth, took over the role, the board and The Block said2. The Block reported on December 18, 2023, that Wilcox would keep a seat on the Bootstrap board, the nonprofit that governs Electric Coin Company.
Three leadership moves at Electric Coin Company on the record since 2023
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Dec. 18, 2023 | Swihart became CEO. Josh Swihart was named Chief Executive Officer of Electric Coin Company |
| Dec. 18, 2023 | Wilcox left as CEO. Zooko Wilcox left as Chief Executive Officer of Electric Coin Company |
| Jan. 7, 2026 | Swihart left as CEO. Josh Swihart left as CEO of Electric Coin Company |
11 CEO exits on the record in 2023
CEO exits CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2023: 11
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 7 |
| 2020 | 9 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 11 |
| 2024 | 20 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 18 |
The move
Electric Coin Company's own post named Wilcox as the company's leader since 2015, when Electric Coin Company was still called the Zcash Company, and credited him with Zcash's 2016 launch and with "the first real-world application of zero-knowledge proofs"1. Wilcox explained the decision in his own words to The Block. “The Board of Directors of the Electric Coin Co, which consists of Alan Fairless, Michelle Lai, Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, and myself, has decided to make Josh Swihart the CEO of the Electric Coin Co, taking over that role from me,” Wilcox wrote in the blog post The Block quoted2. He vouched for his successor in the same post. “I have known and worked with Josh for a long time. While he and I have often disagreed about how we should do things, we've never disagreed by why,” Wilcox wrote.
Why step down after eight years at a company he helped start? Wilcox answered that question himself, in a passage The Block carried in full. “Zcash took over not only my life but also my identity. It was hard for others to see Zcash as something separate from me,” Wilcox said2.
Electric Coin Company before and after
Wilcox stayed on the Bootstrap board as a director after the handover, the company's own post said1. Swihart stepped into a role the board described as responsible for "all strategic and tactical decisions," with a mandate to focus on Zcash users, product fit and wallet usability. The Block's price page recorded Zcash trading near $29.07 the day the move became public, a level the outlet called mostly flat once the day's earlier declines pared back2.
What came next
Swihart ran Electric Coin Company from December 18, 2023 to January 7, 2026. The Block reported on January 8, 2026, that the company's entire staff had resigned on January 7, after what Swihart called a "constructive discharge" forced by the Bootstrap board3. Swihart's own post, which The Block quoted, named the board members he said were misaligned with Zcash's mission. “Yesterday, the entire ECC team left after being constructively discharged by ZCAM. In short, the terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity,” Swihart wrote. The Block reported that Swihart and the departing team planned to form a new company to keep building what he called "unstoppable private money". By the time of that departure, Zcash had passed a $10 billion market capitalization on November 7, 2025, a milestone The Block had covered separately, before the token pulled back to around $456 by early January 2026.
Sources
- The Bootstrap Board of Directors, "Welcoming a new season at ECC: A message from the Bootstrap Board of Directors," Electric Coin Company, December 18, 2023, https://electriccoin.co/blog/welcoming-a-new-season-at-ecc-a-message-from-the-bootstrap-board-of-directors/
- MK Manoylov, "Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox steps down from Electric Coin CEO role," The Block, December 18, 2023, https://www.theblock.co/post/268219/zcash-founder-zooko-wilcox-steps-down-from-electric-coin-ceo-role
- Brian Danga, "Zcash developers quit, form new company after board clash," The Block, January 8, 2026, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilgFBVV95cUxNUGM2d05TQk1fblBZcmFPT3FZYVo3aHZOTkFrZ2FDd1ZjSTY3OF9rVjMwQktRb3RDMGJWTnNmQW9rQUhiUkFmUDVPTUVGM2FxaUcyTllpeXRJbjdDWWloMnlVNUxhV1dWSnBReDVRTmE2SzR3Uno4LW5IZ3lGSHhRMW9sck5DSlRZazI5NWgza0hsQjBHa3c?oc=5