SEC concludes Zcash investigation: Crypto regulation shifts to a new phase

【BlockBeats】Recently, a decision by the SEC has attracted community attention. The Zcash Foundation announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has officially concluded its years-long investigation, confirming that no enforcement actions or corrective measures will be taken.

Looking back at the background, the Zcash Foundation received a subpoena from the SEC in August 2023, with the investigation involving certain cryptocurrency issuance matters. Now that the SEC has completed all review procedures, this case is officially closed. Although the SEC has not made further comments, this outcome is quite symbolic.

You will notice that behind this event there is a larger trend — the US regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies is clearly shifting. After the Trump administration took office, the SEC has withdrawn or terminated enforcement actions against Coinbase, several DeFi projects, and others over the past year, which is completely different from the tough “enforcement-style regulation” approach during the Biden era. The current SEC Chair Paul Atkins is promoting “Project Crypto,” aiming to readjust the crypto regulatory framework to focus on on-chain activities and actual technological realities.

However, there is also some bad news. The Zcash ecosystem has recently experienced significant changes. On January 8, the entire core development team of Zcash, Electric Coin Company, resigned due to disagreements with the board of their parent organization over organizational structure. This seems quite serious, but the Zcash Foundation quickly clarified — their commitment to the Zcash protocol remains unchanged, and the Zcash network essentially operates independently, not relying on any single organization. In other words, organizational adjustments do not mean there is a problem with the network itself.