Winklevoss twins move to take Bitcoin mainstream

CAMERON and Tyler Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency millionaire twins best known for suing Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook, have launched a push to legitimise digital currencies such as Bitcoin.

The Virtual Commodity Association, an industry group led by the Winklevosses’ own online cryptocurrency exchange, said it planned to “promote fairness, transparency, risk management and liquidity” in the market.

The twins hope that the self-regulatory body will find favour with regulators, having twice been thwarted in their attempts to launch a tradable fund pegged to the price of Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies, digital assets that are not controlled by any central authority, have often been met with scepticism, due to an alleged popularity among cyber criminals and because of wild price swings. The price of Bitcoin spiked at the end of last year to almost $20,000 (£15,600) but has lost more than two thirds of its value since then.

Four of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, the websites where the currencies are traded, have signed up to the body. The group has come together in the absence of any clear regulation for cryptocurrencies, and the asset is seen as occupying a legal grey area.

Brian Quintenz, of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a US government agency, called the move a “positive step” for the cryptocurrency world, saying it “could have a meaningful impact on the integrity and credibility of this young marketplace”.

The Winklevoss twins won a $65m payout from Facebook in 2008 after claiming Mr Zuckerberg had stolen the idea when the three were at Harvard University, and put $11m into Bitcoin, an investment that ballooned to be valued at more than $1bn last year.

British cryptocurrency exchanges set up an industry body, Cryptouk, earlier this year.