Canary CEO Calls Zcash A Rug-Pull, Backs Litecoin As Real Privacy Play

Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg has thrown gas on the long-running debate over privateness cash, branding Zcash’s newest rally a “pump and dump” which has been rug-pulled whereas selling Litecoin as his most well-liked privateness asset for regulated markets.

Litecoin Better Than Zcash?

In a collection of posts on X, McClurg mentioned the Zcash surge that started roughly two months in the past “triggered my curiosity.” After revisiting the challenge for the primary time since 2016–2017, he wrote that he initially “purchased into the Zcash narrative” however in the end reached two conclusions.

“Litecoin has broader attain by way of customers, and MWEB a neater instrument for choosing personal wallets/transactions. It is my alternative for privateness in US or UK because of compliance,” he argued. By distinction, “ZEC is a pump and dump on the point of rug-pull. Be cautious on the market,” he posted final week by way of X.

Via X, McClurg adopted up by highlighting Zcash’s sharp reversal on Monday. “Zcash [is] down 50% since this publish. I hope folks noticed the publish survived the rug pull. There remains to be additional all the way down to go,” he wrote, attributing the transfer to “a stunt by dangerous actors.” He didn’t identify particular counterparties, venues or buildings, and his language centered on market conduct moderately than protocol design.

Despite the cruel evaluation of latest buying and selling, McClurg pressured that his criticism just isn’t a rejection of Zcash as a know-how. “Btw, I’ve nothing towards ZEC, because it was the primary foreign money with personal/public choice,” he mentioned. In the identical thread he described himself as “longterm bullish on Litecoin, Monero, Dash, and Zcash in that order,” explicitly putting ZEC final in his private privateness stack however nonetheless on the checklist.

The distinction he attracts hinges on how privateness is carried out and the way that interacts with compliance. Litecoin’s MimbleWimble Extension Block (MWEB) design provides an optionally available confidential layer alongside the clear base chain, permitting customers to maneuver cash right into a separate privateness area whereas leaving complete provide auditable. That construction, plus Litecoin’s broader distribution and alternate assist, underpins McClurg’s declare that LTC is “my alternative for privateness within the US or UK.”

Pressed on Monero’s position, McClurg mentioned he has not researched it “in a number of years” however that, primarily based on earlier work, he “at all times felt that it will be the profitable foreign money for folks in authoritarian regimes. Pure privateness.” At the identical time, he added that Monero is “sadly doubtless not compliant for US residents (not that it shouldn’t be),” capturing the strain between default privateness and present regulatory expectations.

Zcash, with its twin clear and shielded handle system, traditionally sat between these two poles. McClurg’s feedback recommend that, in his view, the recent ZEC rally and crash mirror structural weaknesses in how the market across the asset is behaving, even when the underlying cryptography stays essential.

He closed by warning that he hopes “this stunt by dangerous actors didn’t injury the significance of privateness chains and privateness options,” underscoring that his goal is speculative extra moderately than the broader push for on-chain monetary privateness.

At press time, ZEC traded at $324.