Cypherpunk’s $50M Zcash Bet: Biotech Goes Crypto

The Cambridge-based biotechnology firm announced its complete strategic overhaul on Wednesday, deploying substantial capital to initiate a digital asset strategy after securing a $58.88 million private placement led by Winklevoss Capital. The venture capital firm, founded by Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, provided the entire funding for this transformative move. Cypherpunk Technologies has already executed on this strategy by purchasing 203,775.27 ZEC tokens at an average price of $245 per token using $50 million of the proceeds, representing one of the most significant corporate acquisitions of privacy-focused cryptocurrency to date.

Douglas E. Onsi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cypherpunk Technologies, emphasized that the company’s digital-asset holdings will complement its existing biotech business while creating long-term shareholder value through active participation in Zcash. The company will begin trading under the new ticker symbol CYPH on Thursday, marking the formal completion of its rebranding from Leap Therapeutics to Cypherpunk Technologies Inc. This move places Cypherpunk among a growing list of public companies adopting cryptocurrency as a balance-sheet strategy, following MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook and similar treasury experiments across the corporate world.

The rebranding comes with a comprehensive leadership overhaul that positions Winklevoss Capital at the helm of the new direction. Will McEvoy, a Principal at Winklevoss Capital, becomes Cypherpunk’s first-ever CEO and joins the board, effective immediately. Meanwhile, Khing Oei, the founder and CEO of Treasury—a Netherlands-based Bitcoin treasury company that raised $147 million in September through a private round led by Winklevoss Capital and Nakamoto Holdings—has been appointed Chairman of Cypherpunk Technologies.

McEvoy noted that while other crypto treasury strategies have faltered under what he described as short-term, mercenary capital, Cypherpunk has built a value-aligned investor base focused on the long-term importance of Zcash and privacy for the United States and the world. This leadership structure ensures that the company’s digital asset strategy benefits from experienced crypto investors while maintaining its commitment to both its biotech operations and its new treasury management approach.

Cypherpunk’s pivot focuses exclusively on Zcash, the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency, which uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify transactions without revealing wallet addresses or amounts—a stark contrast to Bitcoin’s fully transparent ledger. This technological distinction has gained increasing relevance amid growing concerns about on-chain surveillance and financial privacy. Galaxy Digital research analyst Will Owens noted in a recent report that Zcash is gaining traction as an alternative to Bitcoin, with advocates framing it as ‘encrypted Bitcoin’ and a return to cypherpunk principles that resonate in today’s surveillance-conscious environment.

The timing of Cypherpunk’s substantial investment coincides with remarkable market activity for Zcash. According to CoinGecko data, Zcash surged nearly tenfold in just two months, peaking near $735 on Friday and triggering $51 million in short liquidations before easing to about $464 early Wednesday. Despite this volatility, Zcash remains 85% below its 2016 high of $3,191, suggesting significant potential upside according to the company’s investment thesis. This price movement underscores both the opportunity and risk inherent in Cypherpunk’s bold treasury strategy.

Cypherpunk’s move occurs against the backdrop of evolving corporate crypto adoption and the parent company of Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, recently filing to enter the prediction markets business. Gemini reported its first quarterly results as a public company following a September IPO, revealing a $159.5 million net loss in its Q1 earnings report driven by IPO-related expenses and higher marketing costs, according to a shareholder letter sent Tuesday.

The substantial investment in Zcash by a publicly-traded company represents a significant validation of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies within traditional finance. As corporations increasingly explore digital assets as treasury instruments, Cypherpunk’s specialized focus on Zcash rather than Bitcoin or Ethereum demonstrates the maturing sophistication of corporate crypto strategies. This pivot not only transforms Leap Therapeutics into Cypherpunk Technologies but potentially establishes a new template for how public companies can leverage specific cryptocurrency technologies aligned with their strategic vision and values.