Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, commonly referred to as the Winklevoss twins are known for their claim against Mark Zuckerberg on stealing their idea for Facebook. They sued Mark Zuckerberg back in 2009, and won a settlement for US$ 65 million.
The Winklevoss twins are making headlines once again as they become the world’s first bitcoin billionaires. They invested $11 million of that money into bitcoin. It was reported that they bought 1% of all bitcoin in circulation at that time.
That investment has led the brothers to become billionaires as bitcoin capped at $11,395 last week. This is a 10,000% increase in their investment from 4 years ago. The brothers describe the currency as “better than gold”. It has all the same traits, scarcity, durability, and portability. Furthermore, it beats gold in all of those traits.
“We see Bitcoin as potentially the greatest social network of all,” said Tyler in 2016. The brothers viewed Bitcoin as a missing piece of the digital economy that would change the way transactions are made. The brothers first learned of Bitcoin while on holiday in Ibiza in 2012, and in 2015 they launched a digital currency marketplace, known as Gemini, that allows investors to buy, sell and store Bitcoins.
“We wanted to build an exchange that was similar to Nasdaq or NYSE for digital currency,” Tyler Winklevoss said at the time. “We wanted something that both Wall Street and Main Street felt comfortable with.” The brothers believe that the currency will be worth trillions one day. “We’ve never sold a bitcoin, we’re in it for the long haul,” Cameron Winklevoss said two years ago.
We don’t know the exact number of bitcoins owned by the Winklevoss twins but if they really are in it for the long haul, we might see their holdings go even higher as bitcoin continues to surge.