Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have launched Cypherpunk, a new digital asset treasury company that has raised $100 million to acquire Zcash (ZEC). The Gemini co-founders announced that the company aims to accumulate up to 5% of ZEC’s circulating supply and currently holds 233,644 ZEC.

The move comes as 2025 shapes up to be a significant year for corporate treasury strategies involving digital assets. While companies like Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy have focused on Bitcoin, the Winklevoss twins are placing a major bet on the privacy-preserving protocol Zcash, which forked from the Bitcoin codebase in 2016.

The AI Catalyst for Privacy

Speaking at the Bitcoin Amsterdam conference, the twins explained that their renewed focus on privacy is a direct response to the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. They argue that just as the 2008 financial crisis was a catalyst for Bitcoin, the dawn of the AI age is the primary catalyst for privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

“We’re huge fans of Bitcoin and long-term holders, of course, and also huge fans of Zcash, which we view as encrypted Bitcoin,” said Tyler Winklevoss. “Bitcoin is where you store your value, and Zcash is where you transact or spend your value. We launched a DAT for Zcash and we’re really dedicated to privacy and self-sovereignty to help mainstream these ideas.”

A Complementary Role for Bitcoin

Tyler Winklevoss emphasized that he believes Bitcoin and Zcash will coexist and complement each other. While Bitcoin could potentially incorporate more significant privacy features, he sees Zcash serving as an effective privacy layer for transactions while Bitcoin maintains its status as an unparalleled digital store of value.

“The current world works with Bitcoin and Zcash,” he explained. “Ideally, Bitcoin would have added privacy in the early days, and maybe it will. Bitcoin really proved out the concept of decentralization and non-government money in a big way. But there’s more work to be done.”

Zcash Reaches an Inflection Point

While Zcash has seen overwhelming support on social media, some critics remain skeptical of the recent fervor surrounding the nine-year-old protocol. Cameron Winklevoss acknowledged that while they have been optimistic about Zcash since its inception, the protocol has hit a new inflection point in 2025, similar to moments in Bitcoin’s history.

“Bitcoin’s had a couple of different inflection points,” Cameron said. “The first one we experienced was the ‘bail in’ in Cyprus in 2013. That sent Bitcoin up over $100 in a very short period of time. I think the world took notice.” He suggested that the explosive growth of AI is creating a similar moment for privacy protocols like Zcash.

An Evolving Crypto Ecosystem

Unlike some early Bitcoin advocates who dismissed other cryptocurrencies, the Winklevoss twins have maintained an open mind. They famously purchased 100,000 BTC in 2013 when it was trading around $120 per coin but have since embraced innovation across the industry.

“We don’t view this as a zero-sum game where the pie is fixed. Bitcoin is obviously gold 2.0,” Cameron Winklevoss stated. “But when Ethereum came along and started working on innovating programmability, which I thought was really cool, Bitcoin didn’t want to do that.” He added that bringing new developers into the crypto space through protocols like Ethereum is a net positive for the entire industry, ultimately bringing people one step closer to Bitcoin.