Winkelvoss-Backed Cypherpunk Enters Digital Asset Treasury Space

Biotech company Leap Therapeutics is entering the digital asset treasury space and rebranding as Cypherpunk Technologies.

The company plans to accumulate Zcash’s native, privacy-focused cryptocurrency coin, ZEC, according to a Wednesday (Nov. 12) press release. Cypherpunk has used $50 million of a $58.8 million private placement to buy 203,775.27 ZEC at an average price of $245.37 per coin.

The rebrand comes as crypto treasury companies suffer through a downturn, something Cypherpunk acknowledged in the release.

“The recent weak performance of digital asset treasury companies stems from PIPEs dominated by short-term, mercenary capital,” Cypherpunk Chief Investment Officer Will McEvoy said in the release, referring to private investments in public equities. “We’ve taken a different path by building a syndicate of value-aligned investors who believe in the long-term importance of Zcash and privacy for the United States and the world.”

The company’s $58.8 million investment was led by Winklevoss Capital, which contributed most of the private placement, the release said.

Cypherphunk is “dedicated to self-sovereignty,” and Zcash is a privacy-focused blockchain, per the release.

“As the world becomes increasingly digitized, privacy has become a rare and vanishing resource,” the release said. “And despite their critical importance, privacy-enhancing technologies remain under-adopted. Backing privacy today is both a generational mission and a massive opportunity.”

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency has previously caught the attention of law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the United States, PYMNTS reported in 2022.

The IRS has handed out contracts of over $1 million to finance attempts to break the anonymity of privacy coin Monero. In June 2018, under the first President Donald Trump administration, the Secret Service went before Congress seeking legislation targeting privacy coins.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s increasing prominence in corporate treasuries is a sign of a rethinking of the way businesses store value, handle inflation risk and hand out capital. At the same time, companies might take a more measured and diversified approach than the likes of Strategy, a pioneer in the space.

“Rather than going all-in on bitcoin, CFOs may choose a hybrid treasury model, maintaining a mix of cash, fixed-income assets and bitcoin to balance liquidity needs with long-term appreciation potential,” PYMNTS reported in February.