Gemini founders have donated $1.2 million in ZEC to Shielded Labs as part of their ongoing effort to support Zcash.
The Winklevoss twins have donated to Shielded Labs, an independent Zcash ZEC $369.2 24h volatility: 3.5% Market cap: $6.10 B Vol. 24h: $542.64 M development organization.
The latter confirmed that it received 3,221 ZEC valued at approximately $1.16 million from Gemini founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
This fund is to be directed towards core protocol work amid ongoing changes within the Zcash ecosystem.
Winklevoss Twins Contribute to Zcash Security
The $1.2 million donated by the Winklevoss twins to Shielded Labs is to support protocol-level work on Zcash.
This includes the Network Sustainability Mechanism, Crosslink, and Dynamic Fees.
All of these initiatives are geared towards improving Zcash’s security, scalability, and economic resilience.
— Shielded Labs (@ShieldedLabs) January 20, 2026
It was worth noting that Shielded Labs and Zcash’s block rewards and development fund operate independently of each other.
The organization is funded through donations and focuses primarily on protocol-level research and engineering rather than product development.
Tyler Winklevoss issued a statement, noting that a “healthy Zcash ecosystem depends on multiple independent organizations contributing at the protocol level.”
He described Shielded Labs as an important part of that effort.
His brother Cameron added that their support for Zcash has spanned years, and this was attributed to their view of strong privacy being a core property of sound money.
Departure From ECC Heralds CashZ Wallet
Electric Coin Company, which is the primary organization behind the creation and ongoing development of Zcash, recently faced an exodus of developers.
This was after a dispute with its board that led to the formation of a new company.
According to former CEO Josh Swihart, the departures were the result of ongoing conflict with the Bootstrap board, a nonprofit entity created to oversee the company and support the wider Zcash ecosystem.
At the time, the sudden Zcash developer exit raised concerns among investors, even as former leaders said the network itself would continue operating without disruption.
At the time, a drop of 10% in the Zcash price followed the news.
Meanwhile, former Zcash developers announced the release of the CashZ wallet in the first week of this year.
This marks their first move after leaving the Electric Coin Company. The CashZ wallet is built on the Zashi codebase, with easy user migration planned.
Users of the current Zashi wallet will be able to move to the CashZ wallet without friction once it launches.
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