Zcash dips 45% after critical orchard pool vulnerability raises counterfeit token risk

Key takeaways

• ZEC is down 45% and is now trading around $309 per coin.
• The vulnerability was fixed within days, and findings suggest that actual exploitation of the bug is unlikely.

Zcash Zcash fell sharply on Friday after researchers disclosed a critical vulnerability in its Orchard shielded transaction pool that could have theoretically enabled the creation of unlimited counterfeit tokens.

The price dropped about 45% to $309 with most of the decline occurring shortly after the security disclosure was made public.

Critical flaw found in Zcash Orchard shielded pool

The vulnerability was identified by security researcher Taylor Hornby during an audit commissioned by Shielded Labs, an independent support organization for the Zcash ecosystem.

According to the report, the issue was located in the Orchard circuit, the zero-knowledge proof system that secures private transactions within Zcash’s shielded pool.

The flaw allowed under-constrained inputs in elliptic curve computations, making it possible to pass invalid values as valid proof...