According to @alice_und_bob, an X post signals community chatter that Mert is joining Polkadot, but it includes no official announcement, timing, or terms and only links to an @0xMert_ status. Source: X/@alice_und_bob, Nov 11, 2025. For trading purposes, this remains unverified; market participants should wait for confirmation from official Polkadot or @0xMert_ channels before treating it as price-moving news for DOT. Source: X/@alice_und_bob, Nov 11, 2025.

According to @PANewsCN, Helius Labs CEO Mert stated he is assembling a new independent core team for Zcash focused on scalability and security, describing it as a 'Manhattan Project' for privacy money (source: @PANewsCN post; @0xMert_ X post, Oct 27, 2025). The initiative is actively hiring a CEO, a chief engineer, and researchers, indicating near-term team buildout activity (source: @PANewsCN post; @0xMert_ X post, Oct 27, 2025). No technical roadmap, timelines, or specifications were provided in the announcement, leaving delivery dates undisclosed at this stage (source: @0xMert_ X post, Oct 27, 2025). ZEC is the native asset of the Zcash network, where protocol-level development efforts underpin future network upgrades and performance changes tracked by market participants (source: Zcash official documentation by Electric Coin Co. and Zcash Foundation).