The 12 months 2025 will go down in history because the 12 months of the digital asset treasury firms. Michael Saylor's Strategy and Tom Lee's Bitmine have pushed Bitcoin and Ethereum-based strategies, while a handful of other DATs have grabbed headlines.
Zcash (ZEC), the privacy protocol that emerged from a tough fork of the Bitcoin codebase in 2016, was one among the large winners in 2025. Prominent industry advocates have highlighted the importance of privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies, and Zcash was absolutely the winner by way of percentage price increases.
It gave the look of it was only a matter of time before the ecosystem welcomed a Zcash DAT and the Winklevoss twins left the competition well behind.
Gemini co-founders announced the launch of Cypherpunk, which has raised $100 million to accumulate ZEC for its treasury. Tyler Winklevoss said the corporate goals to build up as much as 5% of the circulating ZEC supply. To date, Cypherpunk holds 233,644 ZEC.
In an exclusive conversation with Cointelegraph in the course of the Bitcoin conference in Amsterdam, the Winklevoss twins recently said their newfound concentrate on privacy is attributable to significant advances in artificial intelligence over the past two years.
“We're big fans of Bitcoin. We're obviously hodlers and we're also big fans of Zcash, which we expect of as encrypted Bitcoin. Bitcoin is where you store your value and Zcash is where you transact or spend your value and that's why we launched a DAT for Zcash and we're really dedicating this week to privacy and self-sovereignty to assist generalize those ideas,” said Tyler Winklevoss.
“The catalyst for Bitcoin was essentially the 2008 financial crisis, and the catalyst for privacy is the start of the age of AI.”
Tyler Winklecoss stays convinced that Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash will coexist and complement one another in the approaching years. Bitcoin could potentially add significant privacy features by adopting various opcode changes, however the twins said Zcash could act as a privacy layer for transactions while Bitcoin would proceed to function an unrivaled digital store of value.
“I feel today's world works with Bitcoin and Zcash. Ideally, Bitcoin would have provided more privacy within the early days, and possibly it’s going to. I feel many cryptos will provide more privacy over time. Bitcoin has really proven the concept of decentralization and non-governmental money in an enormous way. But there continues to be quite a lot of work to be done,” said Tyler Winklevoss.
Cypherpunk is back in style
Although there was overwhelming support for Zcash on the protocol, it has been lively since 2016 and a few proceed to query the narrative presented by major industry players.
Cameron Winklevoss said they’ve been “optimistic about Zcash” since its launch nine years ago, but admitted that the protocol has reached a brand new inflection point in 2025, much like what Bitcoin has experienced at various points in its 16-year existence:
“Bitcoin has had several turning points along the way in which. I feel the primary one we experienced was the Cyprus bail-in in 2013. That sent Bitcoin up over $100 in a really short time period. I feel the world suddenly noticed.”
The explosive development of AI is now resulting in an identical situation for privacy protocols, with Zcash reaching its own tipping point in recent months. Tyler Winklevoss said that developers and advocates involved within the Zcash movement have gotten increasingly positive about its future.
“The people enthusiastic about Zcash are also OG Bitcoiners and cypherpunks who were there within the early days. Zooko Wilcox, one among the founders of Zcash, is an OG cypherpunk. I feel it was only a matter of time,” he said.
“Crypto is just not a zero-sum game”
The Winklevoss twins are considered two of the primary Bitcoin adopters on Wall Street. According to reports in 2013, the twins purchased 100,000 BTC, price around $11 million.
With Bitcoin trading at around $120 per coin, this was a major bet on the standout cryptocurrency's long-term potential. In hindsight, it’s going to be a life-changing decision for the brothers.
However, unlike other early Bitcoin OGs who remained loyal to BTC and rejected all other cryptocurrencies, the Winklevoss twins were more open to the countless protocols and tokens that emerged within the wake of Bitcoin.
“We don't have a look at this as a zero-sum game where the cake is locked. Bitcoin is clearly Gold 2.0. It's probably the most stable money on this planet. But when Ethereum got here along and commenced working on progressive programmability, which I believed was really cool, Bitcoin didn't want to try this,” said Cameron Winklevoss.
“I don't think it actually compromises Bitcoin. If it brings people into the room, let's say engineers, who need to work on smart contracts in Ethereum who weren't enthusiastic about Bitcoin, then that's a very positive thing because once you purchase Ethereum, then you definately're one step closer to purchasing Bitcoin,” he added.
The result’s a development that continues to assist the industry innovate and enables the energy supplier to unravel pressing problems of the past.
“Bitcoin has obviously innovated with Proof of Work. Ethereum has innovated with programmability and now Zcash has innovated with privacy. I like that innovation, I prefer it when that happens. I feel all of it increases the entire pie, including the Bitcoin pie.”
