Winklevoss-Backed Cypherpunk Launches 'World's Largest' Zcash Mining Fleet

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.