Cypherpunk Technologies announced the launch of its mining division, Cypherpunk Mining, which will mine Zcash (ZEC) with equipment boasting a total capacity of approximately 4.2 GSol/s. According to the company, this represents about 18% of the hash rate of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency’s network.
The operation includes the latest Z15 Pro units and associated hosting contracts. Cypherpunk claims this is currently the largest active infrastructure for Zcash mining.
The assets were acquired by Cypherpunk Mining, a subsidiary, from Moria Mining. The deal was valued at $33.33 million. Instead of cash, the seller received a prepaid warrant to purchase 43.29 million shares of Cypherpunk at an exercise price of $0.001 per share. The shares were valued at $0.77 for the transaction.
Moria Mining is linked to Winklevoss Treasury Investments, an entity affiliated with Winklevoss Capital, owned by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. At the time of the deal, Winklevoss Treasury Investments held 19.9% of Cypherpunk’s shares.
Kevin Zhang has been appointed to lead the mining division. He previously worked with Bitcoin and Zcash, developing pools and infrastructure at Foundry.
The company plans to use the mined ZEC to bolster its cryptocurrency reserves. As of August 18, Cypherpunk held 323,394.38 ZEC, approximately 1.92% of the coin’s supply. The firm’s stated goal is to increase this share to 5%.
According to Cypherpunk, around 43,800 ZEC are distributed monthly as mining rewards in the network.
The asset’s price did not react to the news. Over the past 24 hours, the token decreased by 1.1% and is trading around $506 at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, Cypherpunk’s shares rose by 9%, according to Yahoo Finance.
Previously, on July 28, the Zcash mainnet activated the Ironwood update. This introduced a new shielded pool following a previously discovered critical vulnerability in Orchard, which theoretically allowed the creation of unbacked ZEC without detection by the protocol’s mechanisms.
