Leap Therapeutics (LPTX) Makes Bold $50M Bet on Zcash—Biotech Firm Goes All-In on Crypto

Leap Therapeutics just pulled a 180—ditching pipettes for private transactions. The biotech player dropped $50 million on Zcash, signaling a radical pivot toward crypto's privacy-focused frontier.

From lab coats to Lambos? LPTX's sudden crypto plunge raises eyebrows—and questions about whether this is visionary diversification or just another desperate hedge against biotech's notorious volatility.

Wall Street analysts are already sharpening their knives: 'Nothing fixes a struggling balance sheet like gambling on digital assets,' quipped one fund manager. Meanwhile, crypto natives welcome the fresh capital—even if it comes with a side of biotech-burned cash.

ZEC holders cheer the institutional validation, while short sellers circle LPTX like vultures. One thing's certain: in 2025's financial circus, the line between moonshot and meltdown has never been thinner.

TLDR

• Leap Therapeutics rebranded as Cypherpunk Technologies and invested $50 million in Zcash tokens, causing shares to surge over 170% on Wednesday
• The company purchased 203,775 ZEC tokens at $245.37 each using funds from a $58.88 million private placement led by Winklevoss Capital
• Zcash tokens have more than doubled in value since purchase, now trading around $523, making the investment highly profitable
• The new ticker symbol CYPH became effective Thursday, marking the company’s complete pivot from biotech to crypto treasury strategy
• Board changes include Khing Oei as chairman and Will McEvoy from Winklevoss Capital as chief investment officer

Shares of Leap Therapeutics jumped over 170% on Wednesday after announcing a complete shift from biotechnology to cryptocurrency. The company revealed plans to rebrand as Cypherpunk Technologies with a new stock ticker CYPH starting Thursday.

Leap Therapeutics, Inc., LPTX

The company used $50 million from a recent funding round to purchase 203,775 Zcash tokens. The tokens were bought at an average price of $245.37 each.

Winklevoss Capital led a $58.88 million private placement that funded the purchase. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who co-founded crypto exchange Gemini, backed the deal through their venture capital firm.

The Zcash tokens have proven to be a winning bet. Since the purchase, ZEC has more than doubled in value to around $523 per token.

Some reports showed shares rising as much as 369% during Wednesday’s trading session. The stock price reflected investor enthusiasm for the crypto pivot.

Leadership Changes Drive New Direction

The company announced two new board members to guide the crypto strategy. Khing Oei, CEO of a European Bitcoin treasury company, will serve as chairman of the board.

Will McEvoy from Winklevoss Capital joins as chief investment officer. McEvoy stated the company built a syndicate of investors who believe in Zcash’s long-term value.

Tyler Winklevoss posted on X about the company’s mission. He wrote that Cypherpunk is dedicated to privacy and self-sovereignty as people’s lives MOVE online.

Privacy is the precondition for many of our freedoms. It’s the point at which government and corporate reach end and our individual freedoms and self-sovereignty begin. As our lives have moved online, privacy’s become a rare, vanishing commodity.

That’s why we founded Cypherpunk… https://t.co/PD38Id90pg

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) November 12, 2025

The new ticker CYPH represents the company’s complete transformation. The rebrand marks a departure from its previous focus on oncology biotechnology.

Zcash Performance and Market Position

Zcash launched in 2016 as a bitcoin fork with privacy features. The blockchain uses zero-knowledge proofs called zk-SNARKs to verify transactions without revealing details.

ZEC experienced strong growth this year. The token jumped from around $48 in early September to over $640 within weeks.

The rally pushed Zcash back into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes predicted ZEC could reach $1,000 in 2025.

Market analysts noted the token’s relative strength index hit 94.24 this week. This reading makes ZEC the most overbought on record according to technical indicators.

Hayes encouraged Zcash holders to move tokens off centralized exchanges. He told users on X to “shield” their assets for private transactions.

The token hit $723 over the weekend before sliding 37% to around $450 by Wednesday. This volatility followed the overbought technical readings.

Cypherpunk’s strategy follows a model pioneered by Michael Saylor’s Strategy with Bitcoin. Companies raise funds through equity and debt sales to accumulate cryptocurrencies.

This approach became popular in 2024 with dozens of public firms announcing similar pivots. However, many digital asset treasury companies saw share prices fall below their holdings’ net asset value in recent months.

McEvoy said their approach differs by focusing on value-aligned investors. The company positioned Zcash as a hedge against surveillance-driven financial systems.

The funding round closed at $58.88 million with Winklevoss Capital leading the investment. This gave the company enough capital to make the $50 million Zcash purchase while maintaining operational funds.