2025 will be remembered as the year of digital asset treasury companies. Michael Saylor’s Strategy and Tom Lee’s Bitmine have promoted Bitcoin and Ethereum-based strategies, and several alternative DATs have made headlines.
Zcash (ZEC), the privacy protocol born from a hard fork of the Bitcoin codebase in 2016, is one of the big winners of 2025. Prominent industry advocates have touted the importance of privacy-protecting cryptocurrencies, and Zcash is the clear winner in terms of price appreciation.
The ecosystem welcomed Zcash DAT and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Winklevoss twins beat out the competition in spectacular fashion.
Gemini co-founders announce the launch of Cypherpunk, which raises $100 million to acquire ZEC to Treasury. Tyler Winklevoss said the company aims to accumulate up to 5% of the circulating ZEC supply. To date, Cypherpunk has 233,644 ZEC.
Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph during the recent Bitcoin Amsterdam conference, the Winklevoss twins said their new focus on privacy was driven by significant advances in artificial intelligence over the past two years.
Related: Bitcoin vs. Zcash debate intensifies as ZEC regains $700 level
“We’re big fans of Bitcoin. We’re hodlers, obviously, but we’re also big fans of Zcash, which we consider crypto-Bitcoin. Bitcoin is where you store your value, and Zcash is where you trade and spend your value. That’s why we launched DAT for Zcash. This week we’re taking privacy and self-sovereignty seriously and helping bring these ideas to the mainstream,” said Tyler Winklevoss.
“Bitcoin was triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, and privacy was triggered by the dawn of the AI era.”
Tyler Winklekos remains confident that Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash will coexist and complement each other in the coming years. While Bitcoin may add significant privacy features by adopting various opcode changes, the twins said that while Zcash will serve as a privacy layer for transactions, Bitcoin will continue to serve as an unparalleled store of digital value.
“I think the world works today with Bitcoin and Zcash. Ideally, I think Bitcoin would have added privacy early on, and it probably will. I think many cryptocurrencies will add privacy over time. Bitcoin really proved the concept of decentralization and non-governmental funding in a big way, but there’s still more work to be done,” said Tyler Winklevoss.
Cypherpunk is back in style
Although Zcash on X has received overwhelming support, critics remain skeptical about the newfound enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency. The protocol has been in place since 2016, and some have questioned the narrative promoted by key figures in the industry.
Cameron Winklevoss said he has been “bullish on Zcash” since its creation nine years ago, but acknowledged that the protocol will reach a new inflection point in 2025, similar to what Bitcoin has experienced at various points in its 16-year life.
“Bitcoin has had a few different inflection points along the way. I think the first one we experienced was the Cyprus ‘bail-in’ in 2013. I think that drove Bitcoin up and over $100 in a very short period of time. I think the world suddenly took notice.”
The explosive evolution of AI is now creating a similar situation for privacy protocols, and Zcash has reached its own inflection point in recent months. Tyler Winklevoss said developers and supporters involved in the Zcash movement are becoming increasingly positive about its future.
“The people who are excited about Zcash are also the OG bitcoiners and cypherpunks who were around in the early days. Zooko Wilcox is one of the founders of Zcash and is the OG cypherpunk. I think it was just a matter of time,” he said.
“Virtual currency is not a zero-sum game”
The Winklevoss twins are famous for being the two earliest Bitcoin adopters on Wall Street. According to reports in 2013, the twins purchased 100,000 BTC (worth about $11 million).
Bitcoin was trading at around $120 per coin, which was a big bet on the long-term potential of this great cryptocurrency. In hindsight, it would remain a life-changing decision for the brothers.
But unlike other early Bitcoin OGs who remained loyal to BTC and denounced all other cryptocurrencies, the Winklevoss twins had a more open mind to the myriad protocols and tokens that came into existence after Bitcoin.
Related: Could the rise in Zcash revive the Bitcoin OP_CAT discussion?
“We don’t think of this as a zero-sum game where the pie is fixed. Bitcoin is clearly Gold 2.0. It’s the healthiest money in the world. But when Ethereum came along and started working on innovations in programmability, we thought that was really great, but Bitcoin didn’t want to do that,” Cameron Winklevoss said.
“Actually, I don’t think it’s taking away Bitcoin. If you’re getting people into this space, like engineers who wanted to work on smart contracts for Ethereum who weren’t interested in Bitcoin, that’s a very positive thing, because once you buy Ethereum, you’re one step closer to buying Bitcoin,” he added.
The result is an evolution that continues to support industry innovation, and this utility solves pressing problems of the past.
“Bitcoin obviously innovated with proof of work. Ethereum innovated with programmability and now Zcash innovated with privacy. I like that innovation and I want to see that happen. I think all of that will grow the whole pie, including the Bitcoin pie.”
Magazine: 2026 is the year of practical privacy in cryptocurrencies: Canton, Zcash and more
