Former oncology biotech company Leap Therapeutics (LPTX), which earlier this month raised $58.9 million in funding led by Winklevoss Capital to transform itself into a digital treasury company, announced the $50 million purchase of Zcash. .
At the same time, the company is rebranding as Cypherpunk Technologies and will begin trading on Thursday with the new ticker CYPH, a Wednesday press release read.
Just about the only crypto to increase in value over the past few weeks, ZEC has more than doubled since Leap’s purchase, rising another 12.2% over the past 24 hours to $523.
LPTX shares rose 369% on Wednesday after announcing a profitable investment.
Digital asset treasuries are pursuing a strategy to raise money by selling stocks and debt to accumulate cryptocurrencies, a playbook pioneered by Michael Saylor’s (MSTR) strategy with bitcoin. They became ubiquitous this year with dozens of public companies announcing a change of course, but the frenzy has calmed considerably in recent months as their stock prices in many cases fell below the net asset value of their digital asset holdings.
“The recent weak performance of digital asset treasury companies stems from PIPEs dominated by short-term mercenary capital,” said Will McEvoy, Cypherpunk’s chief investment officer in a statement. “We have taken a different path by creating a syndicate of value-driven investors who believe in the long-term importance of Zcash and privacy to the United States and the world.”
Zcash is designed to provide users with greater privacy than traditional cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. . Cypherpunk executives viewed ZEC as a safeguard against surveillance-driven financial systems.
