The price of Zcash (ZEC) surged over 7% in the past 24 hours after Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, revealed a new public firm, Cypherpunk Technologies, dedicated to building a corporate treasury around ZEC.
In an X post on Nov. 12, Winklevoss said the new digital asset treasury company (DAT) has already acquired roughly 203,775 ZEC at an average cost of about $245 each, equating to approximately 1.25% of the current ZEC supply.
With ZEC currently trading around $491, the treasury’s dollar-value stands at just under $100 million. In total, the company aims to increase its holdings to “at least 5% of the total ZEC supply,” Winklevoss said in the post, which could total over 800,000 ZEC.
“We feel strongly that Zcash could become a meaningful percentage of Bitcoin’s market capitalization — just on the merits of it being a privacy hedge or insurance policy to Bitcoin’s transparency alone,” he wrote in the post.
The Gemini founder added that he believes Bitcoin will continue to rise to $1 million per coin by 2035, adding that “Zcash could become a meaningful percentage of Bitcoin’s market capitalization.”
What is Cypherpunk?
Cypherpunk, which trades under the ticker CYPH starting today, Nov. 13, emerged from a rebranding of public biotech firm Leap Therapeutics, which had initially focused on developing cancer therapies. By mid-2025, the firm had cut about 75% of its workforce and paused much of its clinical work while exploring strategic alternatives.
In early October, as Leap’s board of directors started seeking “strategic alternatives,” the firm raised about $58.9 million in a private placement led by Winklevoss Capital, the VC firm run by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, to fund the pivot into the crypto sector.
ZEC’s Extended Rally
Zcash experienced a strong and extended price rally starting in early September — just about a week before Winklevoss Capital’s investment in Leap was announced — reaching a multi-year high above $700 last week.
Despite a recent correction, ZEC is still up over 100% on the month, and over 1,100% on the year. The token also led a broader sector-wide rally, with other privacy-focused assets like DASH reaching cycle highs into this month.
Some analysts have said the surge reflects increasing demand for privacy in crypto transactions, while at the same time indicates a “a rotation into neglected assets,” as BTC and ETH chop near prices that would keep them flat on the year.
The Winklevoss-back Zcash DAT also comes just a few days after Electric Coin Company, the non-profit firm that develops Zcash, and Gemini rolled out support for withdrawing ZEC directly into the Orchard shielded pool. This means users can now send ZEC with transaction details — like how much and to whom — automatically hidden.
