The Zcash Foundation pushed out patches for two critical vulnerabilities in its Zebra node software, the organization disclosed this week. The fixes arrived alongside a quarterly financial update that showed $817,000 in operational spending and net liquid assets of $36.7 million as of the end of the first quarter. Separately, U.S. securities regulators closed a months-long investigation into the foundation without bringing any enforcement action.
Critical holes in Zebra
The two vulnerabilities were found in Zebra, the independent implementation of the Zcash protocol that the foundation maintains. Security researchers flagged both issues as critical, meaning they could have been exploited to disrupt network consensus or compromise node operations. The foundation said it patched the flaws promptly and urged all Zebra operators to update. No details about the specific attack vectors were made public, a standard practice to give users time to apply the fixes before full technical disclosures.
Financial position and spending
In its first-quarter report, the Zcash Foundation said it spent $817,000 on operations, covering developer salaries, infrastructure, audits, and grant programs. The burn rate suggests the foundation could sustain current spending for over 11 years without additional revenue, given its $36.7 million in net liquid assets. The figure includes cash, short-term investments, and other liquid holdings. The foundation does not disclose any major fundraising plans, indicating it plans to rely on its existing treasury for the foreseeable future.
SEC investigation ends quietly
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began looking into the Zcash Foundation’s activities at some point in the past, but the regulator has now ended that probe. The SEC did not issue any finding of wrongdoing or recommend enforcement action. The foundation acknowledged the conclusion in its quarterly update but did not specify what triggered the investigation or its scope. The closure removes a regulatory overhang that had shadowed the project.
With the codebase secured, a comfortable cash position, and regulatory uncertainty cleared, the foundation now faces the challenge of keeping pace with protocol upgrades and attracting developers to its privacy-focused network. The next software release is expected in the coming months, and the foundation says it will continue coordinating with the broader Zcash community on network improvements.
