Episode
Claude Found a Zcash Counterfeiting Bug
- Podcast
- Good for Bitcoin
- Published
- Jun 5, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 760
- Processing state
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Summary
Kate's out sick, so Brandon flies solo. The headline: a researcher used Claude Opus 4.8 to find a counterfeiting bug in Zcash's shielded pool that could've minted unlimited coins undetectably — ZEC fell 30%. Plus a Bitcoin selloff below $60K, Strategy's quiet sale, and Lava's Bitcoin-back card. In this episode of Good For Bitcoin, Brandon and Kate discuss: Kate's out sick, so it's a short, solo, rapid-fire show this week. Market check: Bitcoin slid below $60K, down 21%+ on the week, with Fear & Greed in extreme fear. Treasury watch (busier than usual): buys from Strive (+2,500 to ~19,000 BTC), Orange BTC, Capital B, Smarter Web and DDC; sells from ProCap (-52) and Canada's Bitcoin Treasury Corp (-3.64). Strategy sold 32 BTC (~$2.5M) — just 0.004% of its stack — yet got blamed for the selloff, even though it bought ~25,000 BTC two weeks ago. The frustrating part: Saylor stayed silent. With an avg cost near $75K, MSTR and STRC both dipped. Lava launched a Bitcoin-back Visa: up to 5% back in BTC at partners, 3% in the US, 1% abroad, no annual or FX fees. It's a secured hybrid funded by your Lava balance — top up via bank transfer, stablecoins, or a Bitcoin-backed loan. The big one: researcher Taylor Hornby found a critical counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard pool that could've undetectably minted unlimited ZEC — and its privacy means no one can prove if it was exploited. Arthur Hayes dumped his stack. The kicker: Hornby found it using Claude Opus 4.8, which surfaced it ~25% of the time. ZEC fell 30%, with Zooko pointing to a network upgrade to restore trust. Quick hits: the US Treasury froze Iranian leaders' accounts and seized $1B+ in stablecoins (easy to seize — unlike Bitcoin); the first Coinbase x Fannie Mae crypto-backed mortgage funded; and a crypto-tax hearin…