Former Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald steps up at crypto investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings
Quick Take
- While at Valkyrie, Wald was instrumental in spinning up several crypto investment products, including the first bitcoin futures ETF.
- Wald is stepping up as Cypherpunk Holdings’ chief executive after serving three years on the firm’s board.
Leah Wald, former CEO of Valkyrie Investments, has been tapped to lead publicly traded crypto investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings, the firm announced Tuesday.
Wald, is joining the Toronto-based company as chief executive officer and president after serving on its board of directors for three years. Wald confirmed to The Block in an interview that she will remain a director of Valkyrie.
As the former CEO of Valkyrie, Wald helped launch several novel investment products — including the first-ever Nasdaq-listed bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds. CoinShares International exercised an option to acquire Valkyrie in January, taking over the firm’s $530 million in assets under management.
“I stayed behind to oversee the private funds,” Wald said. “As soon as those were effectively transferred, I was ready to move to the next opportunity.”
Previous Cypherpunk CEO Antanas Guoga, who praised Wald’s ability to “push the boundaries of what’s possible in blockchain investing,” will serve as chairman, according to a press release.
“The direction as of right now, I'm looking into assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities both within Cypherpunk Holdings and also into the market landscape,” Wald said.
Wald said it was too early to say whether Cypherpunk will pursue its own ETF strategy. The firm was founded in 2018 and was one of the first to put bitcoin on its balance sheet.
“There's a lot of opportunities as we're entering 2024. The bitcoin ETF approvals earlier this year opened the door for other tokens, other companies, and generally new exciting opportunities across the board that didn't exist in the past,” she said.
Cypherpunk recently sold 1,507,692 shares of Web3 gaming firm Animoca Brands, though Animoca remains the firm’s second-largest holding after bitcoin. The firm also purchased over 6,000 SOL tokens at an average price of $163, and has investments in bitcoin mining, the Chia network and hardware wallet firm NGRAVE.
“Cypherpunk Holdings has been listed and been around and been run by crypto natives experts for a long time,” Wald said. “It may look small, but it is mighty.”
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