Bitcoin billionaires in a ‘Winkle’
The Winklevoss twins have become the world’s first bitcoin billionaires.
That’s right, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss — who in 2004 famously sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole their idea for Facebook — have ridden a 10,000 percent rise in the cryptocurrency to a 10digit net worth.
In 2013, the twins used $11 million of the $65 million they pocketed when they settled the suit against Zuckerberg to buy bitcoin.
The Winklevii, as the two have been nicknamed, were early be- lievers in bitcoin — and the purchase allowed them to control nearly 1 percent of bitcoin. While the precise date of the purchase is unknown, the cryptocurrency was trading for under $250 for most of the year — and under $150 for several months.
If the Winklevii bought in at $120, entirely possible given the trading range, they would have gotten roughly 91,666 bitcoin.
The identical twins, who competed as rowers in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, have said recently they haven’t sold any bitcoin since their initial purchase.
As bitcoin has soared in value — to $11,615.81 on Monday at 7 p.m. — the value of their investment would have reached $1.065 billion.
Of course, bitcoin has been extremely volatile, so the 36-yearold twins’ billionaire status may be short-lived. A 20 percent drop would leave the two with a net worth of only $800 million.
That is still, of course, not a bad haul on a speculative investment. But it remains short of the $70 billion net worth of Zuckerberg — who, it clearly appears, was the big winner of the lawsuit.