Following Zcash's recent disclosure of a serious vulnerability involving Orchard Pool, the market reacted swiftly. ZEC shares plummeted after the news broke, and Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom and co-founder of BitMEX, stated that he had sold all of his ZEC holdings.

The vulnerability has been patched.

The disclosed information shows that this issue has existed since 2022, was discovered on May 29, and was fixed on June 1. Shielded Labs stated that the vulnerability could theoretically be used to forge an unlimited number of ZEC tokens, thereby undermining market trust in the token supply.

Hayes stated on X that he had not fully realized this issue would shake his core judgment about Zcash. While he believes the probability of malicious issuance is extremely low, he cannot currently prove cryptographically that such a scenario is impossible.

ZEC once fell by more than 40%.

Following the news, ZEC fell by more than 40% within 24 hours. Hayes said the rapid price drop prompted him to reassess the risks and ultimately decide to close all his positions.

He also stated that he might repurchase ZEC in the future if his current assessment proves to be incorrect. In other words, his sale was based more on concerns about supply integrity than on a definitive judgment that the vulnerability had been exploited.

Large positions are experiencing widening unrealized losses.

On-chain data platform Arkham posted on social media that a large investor's ZEC position, worth approximately $174 million, has lost more than half of its paper value. The platform also stated that this holder had not sold any ZEC in the past six months.

The core impact of this incident lies not only in short-term price fluctuations, but also in the damage to trust in the credibility of privacy coins' supply. For Zcash, although the vulnerability has been patched, whether market confidence will be restored depends on subsequent disclosures and the community's response.