The Nasdaq-listed privacy firm launched Cypherpunk Mining through a $33.33 million equity deal with Winklevoss Capital, adding roughly 18% of the Zcash network's hashrate to accelerate its treasury ambitions.
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In brief
Cypherpunk Technologies launched what it calls the world's largest Zcash mining fleet via a $33.33 million equity-based deal with Winklevoss Capital.
The move extends the firm from accumulating ZEC to producing it: already the largest corporate holder with ~323,394 coins (1.92% of supply).
The launch caps a volatile run for the Winklevoss-backed Zcash bet.
Cypherpunk Technologies, the Winklevoss-backed privacy firm building a treasury around the privacy coin Zcash, has stood up what it calls the world's largest Zcash mining operation, expanding beyond simply accumulating the privacy coin to producing it.
The Nasdaq-listed company said Monday it launched Cypherpunk Mining through a $33.33 million equity-based deal with Winklevoss Capital, acquiring the latest-generation Z15 Pro machines and their hosting agreements.
The U.S.-based fleet is live now, running about 4.2 GSol/s of Equihash hashrate, which the company estimates at roughly 18% of the entire Zcash network. The purchase was funded not with cash but through a pre-funded warrant for about 43.3 million Cypherpunk shares, pegged to a stock price of $0.77.
Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss said the acquisition gives public-market investors a rare route to Zcash mining exposure, which had been hard to come by. Chief Investment Officer Will McEvoy framed mining as the next piece of the company's privacy-focused strategy, saying the ZEC it produces would fund further growth, additional coin purchases, and new privacy-technology investments.
“Zcash hashrate has been concentrated in a small number of miners, pools, and ASIC makers—almost all of it outside the United States,” Cameron Winklevoss posted on X following the announcement. “Cypherpunk is changing that. Our fleet is deployed across U.S. facilities, owned outright, and zero debt and power costs locked in low.”
Zcash hashrate has been concentrated in a small number of miners, pools, and ASIC makers — almost all of it outside the United States.@cypherpunk is changing that. Our fleet is deployed across US facilities, owned outright, with zero debt and power costs locked in low.
The mining push feeds directly into Cypherpunk's treasury ambitions. The company already ranks as the largest corporate holder of ZEC, with about 323,394 coins, or roughly 1.92% of circulating supply, and is aiming to control 5%.
With roughly 43,800 ZEC minted to miners each month, the firm said mining accelerates that goal at production costs below the market price. Cypherpunk also brought on industry veteran Kevin Zhang, formerly of Foundry, as head of mining.
But the ride hasn't been smooth: the stock plunged nearly 40% at one point amid a Zcash privacy bug, underscoring how tightly the firm's fortunes are lashed to a single, thinly traded asset. Zcash currently trades for just above $500, up roughly 7% in the last seven days, but down around 28% from its peak near $700 last year.
Cypherpunk noted its share price is likely to remain highly correlated to ZEC, a risk that cuts both ways.
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