• Winklevoss twins launch a new digital asset treasury (DAT) focused on Zcash
• Cypherpunk fund raises $100M and already holds 233,644 ZEC
• They believe privacy coins will boom as AI grows more powerful
• Zcash seen as the “encrypted Bitcoin” for private transactions
• Twins say Bitcoin + Zcash will complement each other long-term
• AI is creating a new inflection point for privacy technologies
• Winklevoss argue crypto is not a zero-sum game

The year 2025 is shaping up to be the year of digital asset treasury companies (DATs). While major players like Michael Saylor’s Strategy and Tom Lee’s Bitmine focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum, a new wave of alternative DATs is emerging — and Zcash is one of the biggest winners of the year.

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016 as a privacy-focused fork of Bitcoin, has gained massive traction in 2025. Many industry voices have been stressing the importance of privacy, especially as AI grows at an exponential pace. As a result, Zcash has seen some of the strongest percentage gains in the crypto market this year.

This rising momentum led the Winklevoss twins — Cameron and Tyler, founders of the Gemini exchange — to launch a new Zcash-focused DAT called Cypherpunk. The fund has raised $100 million and has already accumulated 233,644 ZEC, with the goal of eventually holding up to 5% of the entire circulating supply.

During an interview at Bitcoin Amsterdam, the twins explained why privacy is becoming their next big focus. Tyler Winklevoss highlighted that the rapid development of AI is creating a new global challenge: personal data and digital identity are becoming increasingly exposed. He called Zcash “encrypted Bitcoin” — a tool designed for private spending, while Bitcoin remains the ultimate long-term store of value.

The twins believe Bitcoin and Zcash will coexist, complementing each other rather than competing. Bitcoin may eventually add some privacy upgrades, but Zcash already offers deep privacy features today, effectively acting as the privacy layer for digital transactions.

While Zcash has existed since 2016, critics argue that the recent hype feels sudden. But Cameron Winklevoss said that Zcash is simply hitting its inflection point, similar to the moments when Bitcoin entered new cycles of global attention — such as the 2013 Cyprus banking crisis.

As AI becomes more advanced, the need for privacy tools is exploding. The founders believe that the original cypherpunk movement — which inspired early Bitcoin developers — is now being revived through technologies like Zcash. Many of the original Bitcoin OGs are returning to support privacy coins as the next major pillar of crypto.

The Winklevoss twins also repeated that crypto is not a zero-sum game. They still consider Bitcoin “gold 2.0,” but they also respect Ethereum’s programmability and now Zcash’s privacy role. In their view, different blockchains solve different problems, and innovation across multiple systems brings more users into the ecosystem as a whole.

For them, Ethereum did not weaken Bitcoin — it expanded the industry. And Zcash will do the same by filling a growing need for privacy in an AI-driven world.

Final Thought

The rise of AI is creating a new urgency for privacy, and the Winklevoss twins believe Zcash is positioned to meet that need. With a $100M fund backing it and increasing support from early Bitcoin cypherpunks, Zcash may be entering its strongest growth phase yet. In the twins’ view, the future of crypto will be built on coexistence, not competition — and privacy is about to become a core pillar of the next digital era.