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.