F2Pool Co-founder Wang Chun: ZEC's recent rally is narrative-driven, with fundamentals far behind SOL and HYPE.

BlockBeats News, September 8 - F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun stated that Zcash's recent rally is primarily "narrative-driven," and a higher market cap does not necessarily mean the project deserves its current ranking. He believes Zcash is not comparable to Solana or Hyperliquid.

He pointed out that Zcash was not fairly launched in its early days. During the first four years, 20% of each block reward was allocated as a "founder's reward" to founders, employees, advisors, and early investors, cumulatively reaching 2.1 million ZEC, accounting for 10% of the total supply. After the founder's reward ended, a similar 20% block reward split reappeared in the form of a "development fund." Wang Chun also criticized Zcash's long-standing "optional privacy" model, arguing that most ZEC has remained in public addresses over time. Meanwhile, institutions such as the Electric Coin Company and the Zcash Foundation have been embroiled in long-standing governance disputes.

In January 2026, the entire ECC team resigned and claimed they were sidelined, which Wang Chun believes is not a marginal issue but a reflection of flaws in Zcash's governance model. Additionally, Wang Chun mentioned a severe vulnerability in the Orchard pool disclosed by Zcash in May 2026, which had existed for approximately four years and could theoretically have been exploited to generate ZEC out of thin air without clear traceability through on-chain records. Due to the nature of privacy pools, it cannot be proven that no counterfeit ZEC was ever created previously. The Ironwood upgrade implemented in July closed the old pool and required related tokens to pass through a new "gateway," which is essentially a bug fix rather than a reason to support ZEC entering the top ten.

Wang Chun concluded that unfair issuance, block reward splits, long-term governance disputes, and a privacy pool vulnerability lasting about four years are insufficient to support Zcash becoming a "top-ten network." It resembles more of a "story coin." He believes that while Solana and Hyperliquid each have their own controversies, they still have real use cases, whereas Zcash's recent rally is driven more by exchange listings and short squeezes.