Cyberpunk: A mining group has launched, controlling 18% of the JetCash network's hash rate

Cypherpunk Technologies has acquired a Zcash mining operation owned by the Winklevoss Capital through a stock swap valued at $33.3 million, and has announced that it is now the world's largest Zcash mining operator. This mining operation, already in operation at facilities across the United States, produces approximately 4.2 GSol/s of hash power, currently accounting for about 18% of the entire Zcash network's hash rate. It is exceptionally significant for a publicly traded company to control 18% of a specific cryptocurrency network's mining capacity. Cypherpunk held 323,394 ZEC before commencing its mining operations, which represents approximately 1.9% of the total circulating supply of ZEC. With the acquisition of this mining farm and the addition of mining rewards, the company has taken a significant step towards its goal of securing 5% of the ZEC circulating supply. The company claims that, under current market conditions, ZEC mining is more economically viable than Bitcoin mining or workloads related to AI data centers. However, it also acknowledges that this profitability is highly dependent on various factors, including the ZEC price, the network's hash rate, the mining difficulty, and operating costs. The price of ZEC has risen by over 1,300% in the past 12 months, driven up by renewed interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies in the second half of 2025. After several years of relative quiet, JetCash and other privacy-preserving technologies are once again gaining attention in the market. Meanwhile, the JetCash network completed the Ironwood upgrade on July 28th. This upgrade addressed a vulnerability discovered in the existing Orchard pool, where a flaw was found that could potentially allow an attacker to forge ZEC within the shield pool without immediate detection under certain conditions. While no actual cases of exploitation of this vulnerability have been confirmed, the possibility of undetected ZEC issuance posed a serious threat to the integrity of the supply, and was therefore addressed. The Ironwood upgrade introduced a new shield transaction protocol to replace the Orchard pool, thereby strengthening the network's security structure.