Winklevoss-Backed Cypherpunk Debuts With $50M Bet on Zcash

Leap Therapeutics, a small-cap biotech firm, has rebranded to Cypherpunk Technologies, which will focus on accumulating Zcash, after a $58.9 million private placement led by Winklevoss Capital.

What's the scoop?

• The 101: The newly refashioned firm is pivoting from cancer drug research to a digital asset treasury strategy centered around ZEC, though it will continue its cancer research via a subsidiary.
• Off to the Races: Cypherpunk has already reported buying 203,775 ZEC (~$50M worth) at an average price of $245, with plans to scale up to owning 5% of the total supply. The pivot marks one of the largest corporate bets ever made on a privacy coin.
• What They're Saying: "We will execute on our mission by accumulating, building, and supporting privacy-protecting assets and technologies at a time when the world needs them more than ever," Tyler Winklevoss noted on X.

Bankless take:

By making privacy an investable public market narrative, the Winklevosses are effectively trying to re-mainstream a core crypto ideal. And if MicroStrategy made Bitcoin corporate-friendly, Cypherpunk wants to do the same for encrypted money.

Let's see how the move plays out. For now, though, we'll have to wait and track how the company will navigate expanding beyond ZEC into other onchain privacy projects.