The year 2025 will be remembered as the year of digital asset financial companies. Michael Saylor's Strategy and Tom Lee's Bitmine have made progress in Bitcoin and Ethereum strategies, while some alternative DATs have made headlines.

Zcash (ZEC), a privacy protocol that originated from a hard fork of the Bitcoin codebase in 2016, is one of the big winners of 2025. Prominent industry advocates have been emphasizing the importance of privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies, and Zcash is the absolute winner in terms of percentage price increase.

It seems to be only a matter of time before the ecosystem welcomes a Zcash DAT, with the Winklevoss brothers getting ahead of the competition.

The co-founders of Gemini announced the launch of Cypherpunk, a company that has raised $100 million to acquire ZEC as part of its financial reserves. Tyler Winklevoss stated that the company plans to accumulate up to 5% of the circulating ZEC supply. As of now, Cypherpunk holds 233,644 ZEC.

In a recent exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at the Bitcoin Amsterdam conference, the Winklevoss brothers expressed that their renewed focus on privacy has been driven by significant advancements in artificial intelligence over the past two years.

“We are loyal fans of Bitcoin. We are certainly holders, and we are also loyal fans of Zcash, which we see as the Bitcoin of crypto. Bitcoin is where you store value, while Zcash is where you transact or spend value, so we are launching a DAT for Zcash. We are very committed to privacy and self-sovereignty this week to help popularize these ideas,” said Tyler Winklevoss.

Tyler Winklevoss still believes that Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash will coexist and complement each other in the future. Bitcoin may significantly enhance its privacy features through the adoption of various opcodes, but the brothers stated that Zcash can serve as a privacy layer for transactions, while Bitcoin will continue to be an unparalleled store of digital value.

“I think the current world operates with Bitcoin and Zcash together. Ideally, Bitcoin should have added privacy features early on, and maybe it will. I believe many cryptocurrencies will increase their privacy features over time. Bitcoin truly proves the concept of decentralized and non-governmental currency. But there is still more work to be done,” Tyler Winklevoss said.

Despite overwhelming support for Zcash on X, critics remain skeptical about the new enthusiasm for this cryptocurrency. The protocol has been live since 2016, and some continue to question the narrative driven by major industry figures.

Cameron Winklevoss stated that they have been “bullish on Zcash” since its inception nine years ago, while acknowledging that the protocol has reached a new inflection point in 2025, similar to the various stages Bitcoin has experienced in its 16-year life:

The explosive development of artificial intelligence has now created a similar situation for privacy protocols, and Zcash has reached its own inflection point in recent months. Tyler Winklevoss noted that developers and advocates involved in the Zcash movement are increasingly optimistic about its future.

“Those excited about Zcash are also early Bitcoin supporters and cypherpunks who were there in the beginning. Zooko Wilcox, as one of the founders of Zcash, is an OG cypherpunk. I think it’s just a matter of time,” he said.

The Winklevoss brothers are known as one of Wall Street's earliest Bitcoin adopters. According to reports from 2013, the brothers purchased 100,000 BTC, which was worth about $11 million at the time.

This was a significant bet on the long-term potential of this major cryptocurrency when Bitcoin was trading at around $120 each. In hindsight, this would be a life-changing decision for the brothers.

However, unlike other early Bitcoin OGs who cling to BTC and condemn all other cryptocurrencies, the Winklevoss brothers have a more open attitude toward the many protocols and tokens that have emerged after Bitcoin.

“We don’t see this as a zero-sum game; the pie is not fixed. Bitcoin is clearly gold 2.0. It is the soundest currency in the world. But when Ethereum came along and started focusing on innovative programmability, I thought that was really cool, and Bitcoin didn’t want to do that,” Cameron Winklevoss said.

“I don’t think this actually undermines Bitcoin. If it attracts people into the space, like engineers who want to develop smart contracts on Ethereum and are not interested in Bitcoin, that’s really positive because once you buy Ethereum, you’re one step closer to buying Bitcoin,” he added.

The result is an evolution that continually helps the industry innovate, with practicality addressing past urgent issues.

Related: Memecoin market hits a 2025 low, evaporating $5 billion in a day

Original article: “Winklevoss Brothers Bet on Zcash and Privacy Technology to Combat AI Threat”

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