hodler

2 May 2026, 12:22

Zcash patches critical flaws as crypto hacks hit $651M in one month

Today, May 2, 2026, the Zcash Foundation just released Zebra 4.4.0, urging all node operators to upgrade immediately after fixing multiple security flaws, including several that could have split the network’s consensus. The patch comes as April closes out as the worst month for crypto exploits so far. Blockchain security firm CertiK confirmed roughly $651 million in total losses across the industry. What kind of Zcash flaws does Zebra 4.4.0 fix? The update resolves five separate vulnerabilities in Zebra, the Rust-based Zcash node implementation built by the Zcash Foundation. Three of the bugs are consensus-critical, meaning that attackers could have exploited them and made Zebra nodes accept transactions that legacy zcashd clients would reject, thus splitting the network. The most severe issue (GHSA-28xj-328h-72vm) allowed a remote hacker to permanently stop a node from discovering new blocks with just one connection. The attack combined three weaknesses in how Zebra shared and downloaded information. According to the Zcash Foundation’s notice, the exploit “produced zero misbehavior score, zero bans, and zero disconnections,” thus making it invisible to standard monitoring tools. A second bug (GHSA-jv4h-j224-23cc) also made Zebra lose count of how many signatures were inside a block of transactions (it would usually count less than the 20,000-sigop block limit). Apparently, Zebra’s system ignored two specific types of scripts (the Coinbase input’s scriptSig, and P2SH signatures) during block validation. Because of this, an attacker could create a block exploiting both gaps, passing Zebra’s checks but failing on zcashd and creating a chain split. The third major issue (GHSA-gq4h-3grw-2rhv) happened because of a previous sighash fix that left stale data in a temporary storage area (buffer) readable across Zebra’s C++ foreign function interface. As such, an attacker could exploit this by using a valid signature to fill the buffer with correct information, and then send in a second transaction with an invalid hash type that would pass verification based on the leftover data. To resolve this, the Foundation applied a temporary fix that scatters the buffer with random bytes if a check fails, thus preventing the system from reusing old information until a permanent fix is deployed. The last two bugs caused disagreements between other parts of the system. One bug overloaded the network by making it use too much memory when reading messages (GHSA-438q-jx8f-cccv). The other was a minor coding discrepancy in how Zebra verified certain transactions (GHSA-cwfq-rfcr-8hmp). The Foundation noted the latter was not practically exploitable, but still went ahead to patch it to match zcashd behavior. Security researcher Sangsoo-osec was credited with discovering three of the five issues. Could the release have come at a better time? According to DeFiLlama , April 2026 was the most-hacked month in crypto history (by number of incidents), suffering an estimated 28 to 30 separate attacks. CertiK’s X post on April 30 put total losses at approximately $651 million, the highest since March 2022, excluding the Bybit breach in February 2025. Two incidents were responsible for most of the damage. On April 1, Drift Protocol lost about $285 million in a social-engineering operation linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. By April 18, KelpDAO had suffered its own $293 million message-spoofing exploit targeting a LayerZero cross-chain bridge, according to Cryptopolitan . Notably, none of April’s exploits targeted Zcash directly. But the sheer volume of attacks across chains reflects why its Foundation chose to label the Zebra update as “critical” and push for immediate adoption. What Zcash node operators should do The Foundation advises all operators to upgrade to Zebra 4.4.0 immediately, as the release doesn’t introduce any other significant changes beyond the security fixes. Node operators running older versions remain exposed to all five vulnerabilities, including the block-discovery halt that requires only a single malicious connection to execute. ZEC traded at $377.46 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of $6.28 billion. If you want a calmer entry point into DeFi crypto without the usual hype, start with this free video.

2 May 2026, 10:20

Zcash (ZEC) Jumps 8% Daily, Bitcoin (BTC) Calms at $78K: Weekend Watch

Bitcoin’s price jumped from $76,000 to almost $79,000 on Friday after the latest reports on the US-Iran war front, but retraced slightly and calmed at around $78,000. Most altcoins have posted minor gains over the past 24 hours, including ETH, which has climbed to $2,300, and HYPE, which has neared $42. BTC Taps $78K The previous business week began with a notable surge from the primary cryptocurrency. After it traded sideways at around $77,000 over that weekend, the asset jumped to $79,500 for the second time in the past week. However, just like it happened during the first attempt, the bears were quick to intervene and pushed it south hard. At first, BTC dipped to $77,500 before another leg down drove it to $76,500. The bears kept the pressure on, and the cryptocurrency slipped to $75,750 on Tuesday. After a failed recovery attempt at $77,750, bitcoin slumped to a weekly low at $75,000 after the US Federal Reserve kept the interest rates unchanged for the third consecutive time in 2026. After that local bottom, BTC bounced off to $76,500 on Thursday and up to almost $79,000 yesterday after reports that Iran had sent another peace proposal to the US. However, bitcoin was stopped there after the POTUS said the proposal was not good enough, and now trades inches above $78,000. Its market capitalization has stalled at $1.570 trillion, and its dominance over the alts remains well above 58% on CG. BTCUSD May 2. Source: TradingView ZEC Pumps Again Ethereum has returned to $2,300 after a minor 1% increase. XRP remains below $1.40 despite a similar daily jump, but many analysts anticipate a major move in the making. HYPE is the top performer from the largest 15 alts, gaining 3% to almost $42. ZEC has stolen the show from the top 100 alts, surging by almost 8% to $380. HASH and SIREN follow suit, with gains of around 6% each. TAO is up by 5% to $273. TRX and BCH have also posted minor gains, while BNB and LINK are slightly in the red. The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has remained relatively stable at $2.680 trillion on CG. Cryptocurrency Market Overview May 2. Source: QuantifyCrypto The post Zcash (ZEC) Jumps 8% Daily, Bitcoin (BTC) Calms at $78K: Weekend Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato .

1 May 2026, 22:32

ZEC Technical Analysis May 1, 2026: Market Structure

ZEC is in a sideways structure, rose to $388 with short-term HL but $400 resistance is blocking BOS. $379 break bearish CHoCH, above $400 brings bullish continuation.

1 May 2026, 20:28

'Crypto King' Silbert Predicts Bitcoin-Like Boom Phase for Zcash (ZEC)

Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert is forecasting a massive, multi-year bull cycle for Zcash (ZEC).