Zinc & ZKFG At War Over Ownership and Governance Rights

Zinc, a privacy-focused mining protocol inspired by Ore, has found itself between a rock and hard place. Amidst a tremendous surge of activity and revenue growth, the protocol is plagued with governance dramas, a buyout, and accusations of rugging its earliest supporters, the $ZKFG DAO.

Led by founder Shift Boss, Zinc is pushing back on the allegations, calling the proposed buyout a “hostile takeover” and comparing the saga to 2021’s Gamestop rigmarole.

Why is Solana’s ownership coin community up in arms over a buyout proposal, and what role does MetaDAO play in proceedings?

Zinc Seeks Privatization From ZKFG DAO

Before its revival as a privacy-geared reimagining of Ore, Solana’s original SOV, ZINC began its life as a private liquid staking protocol named ZKLSOL. In October 2025, ZKLSOL raised $969k in a MetaDAO ICO, launching an ownership coin with the ticker $ZKFG. 

After struggling to find PMF as first ZKLSOL, then as Turbine Cash, the protocol rebranded a second time, announcing ZINC in April 2026. Throughout this development period, operations were funded by the ZKFG DAO treasury. 

In a now-deleted tweet, ZINC asserted that a percentage of protocol revenue would flow to that same ZKFG treasury, which was also used to fund initial liquidity in ZINC/SOL pools on Meteora.

With ZINC becoming a breakout success and generating over $400k in daily revenue, the protocol’s economics have come under fierce scrutiny. Critics like Streamflow founder Malisha Stanojevic argue that ZINC has failed to honor its commitment to direct revenue to the ZKFG treasury.

According to ZINC founder Shift Boss and MetaDAO co-founder Proph3t, onchain flows indicate that protocol revenue has been correctly directed to the treasury.

In parallel, a decision market, ZKFG-006, was created proposing to buyout the markets remaining $ZKFG tokens at $0.15. At the time, the liquidation marked a 2x premium to $ZKFG’s market value, and a 1.5x premium to its original ICO price. According to ZKFG-006, the proposal aims to dispel ongoing “confusion about where value and ownership accrue”, effectively aligning all protocol economics under a singular asset, $ZINC.

While the proposal passed, the liquidation math was incorrect and the liquidation was ultimately unable to proceed due to technical errors with its implementation, including its reliance on memo instruction with an EOA as the fee payer, the absence of an escrow, and the breach of MetaDAO’s policy that buybacks cannot be executed at prices above the protocol’s NAV.

A subsequent proposal, ZKFG-007, or ‘Take ZKFG Private’, is currently live. ZKFG-007 proposes the same liquidation, but smoothes some of the technicalities. 

ZINC founder Shift Boss is vehemently opposed to the proposal, encouraging $ZKFG holders to vote against its success.

At press time, contentions between ZINC, ZKFG DAO, and MetaDAO appear to be reaching progressive conclusions behind closed doors. According to Shift Boss and Proph3t, both teams are optimistic that a “good resolution” that “serves the best interest of all parties” will be reached.

Wider Solana Community Remains Skeptical

Unsurprisingly, the controversy surrounding the ZINC vs ZKFG saga hasn’t done the protocol any favors. While $ZINC has become wildly popular, due largely to its strong revenue and consequent price appreciation, network participants have expressed skepticism towards the protocol and its handling of the ZKFG treasury saga.

Critics have argued that it seems inconsistent that ZINC team members are advocating to reject the current proposal, after having originally supported ZKFG-006.

On the other side of the fence, $ZINC supporters argue that the attacks levied against the protocol are baseless attempts to discredit the protocol by supporters of Ore, Solana’s original proof-of-work mining application.  

KOLs like The White Whale have spoken out against criticisms of ZINC, arguing that ORE supporters are targeting the protocol simply because it has “better PMF”.

Zinc 24hr Revenue Cracks $480k

Despite the controversy, ZINC has recorded consistent growth throughout the weekend’s debacle. According to DefiLlama, ZINC has generated over $482,000 in revenue in the past 24 hours, making it the network’s second-highest earner following pumpfun.

Whether ZINC can overcome the throes of governance and sustain this elevated level of activity is a different story. Crypto applications often struggle to maintain consistent revenues following their initial breakout. Even Ore, a protocol with over 2 years of history on Solana, has witnessed significant drawdowns since its daily revenue peak of $1.01M in November 2025.

$ZINC and $ZKFG holders now desperately await further announcements from MetaDAO and Shift Boss, which will likely determine the role that ZKFG will play in the protocol’s future.

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