Taylor Hornby, a security engineer who recently uncovered a critical bug in Zcash using Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model, is expanding his audit efforts to include Monero and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. The flaw in Zcash, which had been present in the Orchard privacy pool since May 2022, could have permitted the minting of unlimited counterfeit ZEC tokens without detection. Following its discovery on May 29, an emergency fix was implemented by June 1, but not before Zcash's value plummeted by 38%. Hornby, hired by nonprofit developer Shielded Labs to proactively find protocol vulnerabilities, disclosed the bug rather than exploit it, citing a strong bond with the Zcash developers. He plans to seek funding through a Zcash coinholder grant for further audits. This incident has sparked fears that powerful AI systems may reveal similar hidden vulnerabilities across both cryptocurrency networks and traditional banking systems, highlighting the need for enhanced security measures in these spaces.