Zcash mining difficulty has climbed to an all-time high as Cypherpunk Technologies pushes deeper into large-scale mining, adding a U.S.-based fleet that the company says contributes about 4.2 GSol/s of Equihash hash rate, or roughly 18% of the network. The move extends Cypherpunk's strategy from accumulating ZEC to producing it directly through a $33.33 million equity-based deal with Winklevoss Capital, funded via a pre-funded warrant for about 43.3 million shares pegged to a stock price of $0.77. Cypherpunk said the fleet is live now and described it as the world's largest Zcash mining operation. The company already says it is the largest corporate holder of ZEC, with about 323,394 coins, or roughly 1.92% of supply, and is targeting 5%. With roughly 43,800 ZEC minted to miners each month, management has said mining should help it reach that goal at production costs below the market price while also funding further growth, additional coin purchases and new privacy-technology investments. The expansion comes after a volatile period for Cypherpunk's Zcash-focused strategy. The treasury vehicle launched with Winklevoss backing and benefited from a sharp ZEC rally in late 2025, when the token rose even as Bitcoin weakened, with Zcash creator Zooko Wilcox later joining the effort. But the company's shares also fell sharply at one stage during a Zcash privacy bug episode, highlighting how closely Cypherpunk's fortunes are tied to a single, relatively thinly traded asset. ZEC was recently trading just above $500, up roughly 7% over seven days but down around 28% from a peak near $700 last year. Higher mining difficulty generally improves proof-of-work security by making attacks more expensive, but it also squeezes smaller or less efficient miners and can deepen concentration among a limited number of large operators and pools. Cypherpunk has paired the mining buildout with the appointment of former Foundry executive Kevin Zhang as head of mining, while Cameron Winklevoss has argued the U.S.-based, debt-free fleet with low locked-in power costs helps diversify hash rate that had been concentrated outside the United States.