Key Takeaways
- Cypherpunk is a ZEC treasury company launched by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss in November,
- The company has hired Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox as an advisor.
- The Winklevoss twins have been involved with Zcash for years.
After launching a Zcash treasury company in November, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have doubled down on the privacy-focused cryptocurrency.
Funded with $50 million from the Winklevoss’ investment company, Cypherpunk announced on Tuesday, Dec. 9, that it has hired ZEC founder Zooko Wilcox as an advisor.
Winklevoss Twins Establish $58 Million Zcash Treasury
Following the established digital asset treasury (DAT) playbook, in November, Winklevoss Capital led a $58.88 million private placement in Leap Therapeutics, which subsequently rebranded as Cypherpunk.
Almost immediately, the Nasdaq-listed company acquired 203,775 ZEC, representing around 1.25% of the cryptocurrency’s entire supply.
“We plan to continue accumulating ZEC rapidly so that Cypherpunk owns at least 5% of the total ZEC supply,” Tyler Winklevoss stated at the time.
Zcash Founder Joins Cypherpunk
As founder of the Electric Coin Company, Wilcox helped launch Zcash in 2016. Although he stepped down as CEO in 2023, he remains a highly influential figure within the ZEC community.
“As the founder of Zcash, Zooko intimately understands both the technical foundations and the philosophy behind privacy-preserving technology,” Cypherpunk Chief Investment Officer Will McEvoy said in a statement.
Cypherpunk’s latest hire suggests the company doesn’t plan to watch from the sidelines, but will be an active participant in the Zcash ecosystem.
“We’re assembling a world-class bench of cypherpunks, cryptographers, technologists, and thinkers committed to advancing Zcash and the global privacy ecosystem,” McEvoy expanded.
Supporting ZEC Growth
The recent DAT play isn’t the first time the Winklevoss twins have thrown their support behind Zcash. On the contrary, they have been quietly financing the project for years.
According to Tracxn, Winklevoss Capital participated in Electric Coin Company’s seed funding round in 2018.
Meanwhile, the company first listed Zcash on its portfolio page as early as March 2019, making it one of the very first institutional investors to endorse what was still considered an experimental privacy coin at the time.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
