The Philippine Court of Appeals has frozen 116 accounts and assets, including 25 virtual asset wallets, under a Sept. 21 order linked to a flood-control plunder investigation involving an unnamed lawmaker. The Anti-Money Laundering Council said the restraint covers 86 bank accounts, four investment accounts, one insurance policy, and the 25 crypto wallets. The order was issued after the court found probable cause that the property was related to alleged plunder under Republic Act No. 7080.
The AMLC did not disclose the lawmaker, corporation, associated individuals, wallet addresses, cryptocurrencies held, or the virtual asset service provider involved, citing confidentiality rules. Investigators said funds moved through individual intermediaries, corporations, bank accounts, a money service business, and a virtual asset platform, complicating the tracing of funds. The council also said those involved had “no apparent operating revenues” sufficient to support the scale of the investments identified. Under Philippine law, freeze orders last 20 days and can be extended by court approval for up to six months.
Earlier flood-control asset-recovery inquiries had already pointed to crypto. In December 2025, a Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center official said investigators were examining reports that money tied to flood-control corruption had been converted into USDT and moved through intermediaries, with possible crypto movements worth $50 million to $100 million. Those figures were estimates and were not presented as the value of the 25 wallets covered by the September 2026 order.
Separately, Grayscale’s Zcash ETF recorded $93.56 million in net outflows for the week ended Oct. 2, its first negative week since late August. Daily redemptions reached $30.25 million on Sept. 30 and $26.93 million on Oct. 2. Total net assets fell to about $751 million, while cumulative net inflows remained positive at around $212.56 million. ZEC closed at $1,304.32 on Oct. 3, down roughly 21% from the Sept. 26 close of $1,653.12.
The outflows occurred as Grayscale completed a three-for-one forward share split for ZCSH on Sept. 30. The split increased shares outstanding from 7,989,300 to 23,967,900 and cut net asset value per share from $111.41 to $37.14 without changing overall investor value. Earlier in September, Digital Currency Group invested roughly $100 million into ZCSH through an authorized participant transaction.
Zcash’s pullback also reflected declining leverage and profit-taking. OKX perpetual open interest fell from $236.8 million on Sept. 18 to $165 million on Sept. 28. Looking ahead, the Zcash Foundation released Zebra 7.0.0-rc.0 on Oct. 2 as the first release candidate for the NU7 upgrade. Testnet activation is expected around Oct. 6, with developers scheduled to decide mainnet activation height on Oct. 20 and a current roadmap targeting Nov. 5. The upgrade aims to reduce block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds and introduce a network sustainability mechanism.
