Leah Wald, former CEO of Valkyrie Investments, has been appointed president of Cypherpunk Holdings, a publicly traded cryptocurrency investment firm, the company announced Tuesday.
Wald joins the Toronto-based company as CEO and president after serving on its board for three years. Wald confirmed to The Block that he will remain on Valkyrie’s board.
As former CEO of Valkyrie, Wald helped launch several new investment products, including the first Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund. CoinShares International exercised its option to acquire Valkyrie in January, acquiring $530 million of the company’s assets.
“I stayed behind to oversee the private funds,” World said. “As soon as those funds were effectively transferred, I was ready to move on to the next opportunity.”
According to a press release, former Cypherpunk CEO Antanas Guoga, who praised World’s ability to push the boundaries of what’s possible in blockchain investing, will serve as its chairman.
“In the current direction, we want to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities both within Cypherpunk Holdings and in the market environment,” World said.
World said it was too early to say whether Cypherpunk would pursue its own ETF strategy. The company was founded in 2018 and was one of the first to put bitcoin on its balance sheet.
“As we move into 2024, there are a lot of opportunities. The approval of the Bitcoin ETF earlier this year opens up exciting new opportunities for other tokens, other companies, and in general, opportunities that didn’t exist in the past,” she said.
Cypherpunk Recently Despite selling 1,507,692 shares of Web3 gaming company Animoca Brands, Animoca is still the company’s second-largest stake after Bitcoin. The company also bought over 6,000 SOL tokens at an average price of $163 and has invested in Bitcoin mining, the Chia network, and hardware wallet company NGRAVE.
““Cypherpunk Holdings is publicly traded and has been run by longtime crypto natives,” Wald said. “It may look small, but it’s powerful.”
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet providing news, research and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is the largest investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to provide objective, impactful and timely information on the cryptocurrency industry. Below are the current financial disclosures.
© 2023 The Block. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.