Some fun historical facts:
Crypto firms have supplied over $190 Million (more than one third of all corporate money) so far in the United States of America’s 2026 ‘midterm’ elections.
Leading in funding is Fairshake, a super PAC which alone has over $80 Million.* Donors include Coinbase, Andreesson and Horowitz, and the Winklevoss twins.
Fairshake seeks to institutionalize the crypto industry as a permanent political force in the United States federal government, overtly using political spending to get their way in Congress.
POTUS (President of the United States) Trump themselves made about $1.4 Billion in 2025 from his crypto businesses, including meme coins and World Liberty Financial products such as ‘governance tokens.’**
The White House says all actions being taken are in the interest of the American people.
The billionaire Winklevoss† megadonors founded and gave $21 Million as individuals, being by far the primary funders, to the Digital Freedom Fund PAC, which only supports MAGA (Make America Great Again - aka Trump platform) republicans, writing:
The mission of the @FreedomFundPAC is to help realize President Trump’s vision of making America the crypto capital of the world. Since inauguration, @POTUS and his Administration have been delivering on the promises they made on the campaign trail and then some. We want this unprecedented progress and momentum to continue. Our goal is to support President Trump and his Administration’s efforts to continue to usher in America’s Golden Age.
The ‘family office’ of Winklevoss Capital Management funds 99% republican causes by dollar value.
Each twin individually donated $1 million in bitcoin in 2024 to Trump’s presidential campaign. Because the donations exceeded the federal limit, the excess amount (about $155k each) was refunded. They also donated more than $5 million in total to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Leadership Fund, Congressional Leadership Fund and National Republican Congressional Committee.
In November 2025, the twins retooled their biotechnology firm into Cypherpunk Technologies, a digital asset treasury company dedicated to accumulating ZEC, where former ECC (Electric Coin Company) CEO and founder @zooko and ZODL (Zcash Open Development Lab) CEO @joshs now both serve as a strategic advisors. Though the Winklevoss twins are reported to have invested in the ECC in 2018 (listed in public portfolio in 2019), the new Cypherpunk company aims to acquire at least 5% of the total circulating supply of Zcash. Six months ago it held 1.76%.
Crucially, the twins are also funding some of the keystone Zcash development organizations: ZODL and Shielded Labs (SL).
ZODL emerged from ECC. In 2020, the ECC ‘donated itself’ to being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the non-profit Bootstrap Project, enjoying tax benefits, and maintaining mining rewards - now directed to the new org.
SL, a Swiss-based non-profit organization, was publicly announced in early 2023, during concerns that work on Zcash might be impeded and that reliance on the US regulatory environment was risky.†† At that time, founder @aquietinvestor also said:
Shielded Labs will partner with human rights and civil liberties organizations to get Zcash into the hands of those who need it the most.
After leaving ECC in late 2023, @zooko joined SL as ‘Head of Product’ in 2024, and the first incoming donation from the twins to was publicly announced supporting the team creating the hybrid proof-of-stake Crosslink project. A second donation of $1.2 million was announced in 2026.
@joshs took the helm of ECC as CEO in December 2023. At some point in the next two years, an opportunity to use the Zashi wallet app as a for-profit vehicle was identified. However, this plan was blocked by Bootstrap’s board, and the entire ECC development team resigned on January 7, 2026, forming ZODL shortly thereafter. Josh is quoted, saying:
Basically, there’s no benefit in keeping a fast-growing technology company under a nonprofit when the substance of the organization is a for-profit…
and that the Bootstrap board was in:
clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash.
Now taken offline, the Bootstrap board issued a statement archived here, saying:
Over recent weeks, the board engaged in discussions regarding external investment and alternative structures to privatize Zashi, while working with legal counsel to ensure any path forward would comply with U.S. nonprofit law, remain consistent with the long-term mission of Zcash, and not jeopardize the broader Zcash community… Zcash’s power lies in its integrity - as technology and as a movement. A restructuring done in a way that invites scrutiny, even if well-intentioned, would damage that credibility and set back the cause of privacy and financial freedom.
While ZEC itself rapidly shed a significant percentage of its exchange rate, ZODL quickly received Winklevoss Capital led seed fundraising of over $25 million, also joined by Cypherpunk, @balajis, and other Fairshake-adjacent organizations: Coinbase Ventures, and a16z (Andreesson and Horowitz’s venture capital firm). Zashi became Zodl, now free from the constraints of being developed under a non-profit.
@paulbrigner, already Chief Policy & Regulatory Officer at ZODL, was elected to the Zcash Community Grants board, which reviews applications for independent development for the public good of the Zcash ecosystem, allocating from the development fund.
Paul is also organizing a ‘cypherpunk’ policy dinner event in Washington DC for “VIPs, policymakers, policy influencers.” This is being funded by the current sitting ZCG by a 3/5 vote. When questioned about the title of the event Paul said it was “intentionally ironic”.
Cryptocurrencies have never previously been so aligned with the currents of political power, particularly US power. The sector’s scope and intensity of efforts demonstrate a will to establish a strong influence, and at least some willingness to propel such power.
Zcash is now reasonably said to be the globally leading privacy coin. It has the highest exchange rate per coin, the biggest market cap, and dwarfs most other direct competitors in development efforts.
ECC and now ZODL have allocated significant efforts to interface with and influence authorities such as exchanges, regulators‡, and governments. SL is developing a way staking held ZEC will generate a yield in perpetuity.
Both Shielded Labs and ZODL, arguably the primary architects of Zcash’s future, are fueled by capital from billionaire venture capitalists who back an authoritarian regime, and hold massive direct stakes in ZEC.
This isn’t a hypothetical future.
This is history. This is now.
Happy Independence Day!
*In an example of how receptive USG is to this type of influence, this year a major cryptocurrency bill that was headed for a committee vote in the Senate was scrapped a few hours after Coinbase CEO Brian Anderson tweeted about it.
**This accounts for about 64% of their personal income ($2.2 billion), which has quadrupled since taking office in 2024. This sets the record (by about 100x) for the highest annual income ever reported by a sitting US president. Though some difficulties exist in finding the full truth due to shifting disclosure laws and incomplete records, 2nd place for income as sitting POTUS is probably Lyndon B. Johnson, estimated at about 1% of Trump’s current status as the only billionaire POTUS, adjusting for inflation.
†The Winklevoss twins are estimated to be jointly worth $4.6 Billion. Besides what is listed in the main body of this post, they also donated to MAGA Inc. (pro-Trump super PAC) and some individual republican campaigns including RFK Jr. Additionally, they have invested in American Bitcoin, a crypto-mining venture backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
††SL operates only on donations, and has attracted some very wealthy patrons, including Ethereum founder and privacy supporter Vitalik Buterin, who incidentally also recently weighed in against coinholder voting.