Leah Wald, the former boss and co-founder of Valkyrie Investments, has been appointed president and chief executive officer of crypto investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings (HODL.CA).

Wald, who has been a board member of Cypherpunk for nearly three years, will be taking over from current CEO Antanas Guoga, according to a statement from the company. Guoga will remain the firm’s chairman, the statement added.

"With Leah leading the way, we are confident that Cypherpunk will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in blockchain investing and expand our impact in the market," Guoga said in the statement.

As the former CEO of Valkyrie, Wald oversaw the rollout of several funds, including the first-ever Nasdaq-listed bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds. Under her leadership, Valkyrie amassed $1.3 billion of assets under management (AUM) within over a year of the inception of its first fund, the statement said.

Cypherpunk, the Toronto, Canada-based firm, has been actively investing in the digital assets sector for several years and has various investments, including nearly 3 million shares of Animoca Brands. It also recently bought about $1 million worth of Solana's (SOL) token. The firm also holds some bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin mining machines and equity investments in Chia Networks and NGRAVE.

The shares of Crypherpunk rose about 5% this year and the firm has market cap of about C$17 million (around $12.5 million U.S. at present exchange rates), while the price of bitcoin (BTC) climbed about 34%, according to TradingView data.