Cameron Winklevoss (L) and twin brother Tyler Winklevoss have become the world’s first Bitcoin billionaires.
The Winklevoss twins hit a milestone as the price of a bitcoin soaring to $11,413.46 on Monday morning
It is estimated that the twins bought the cryptocurrency at around $120 early on
They bought their bitcoins using money from their lawsuit with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
They used $11million of a $65million settlement from that suit in which they alleged Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social media site
The Winklevoss twins are the world’s first bitcoin billionaires.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who sued Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole their idea for the social networking site, have invested and reaped a 10,000 per cent rise in the cryptocurrency to become billionaires.
The twins walked away from their 2004 suit against Zuckerberg with a staggering $65million settlement, and used $11million of it to purchase the bitcoins.
The twins, who were nicknamed Winklevii, invested early on in Bitcoin and their purchase allowed them to control nearly 1 percent of bitcoins.
It is unclear as to when exactly they invested in the cryptocurrency and the trading fluctuates. It was trading for under $250 for most of the year and then dropped to $150 for several months.
Fortune reports the twins purchased the currency at $120, which would have gotten them roughly 91,666 bitcoins.
The brothers have reportedly not sold a single one of their bitcoins, as they’ve watched it soar in value recently.
As of Monday morning, a coin was valued at $11,413.46 on Monday morning, bringing the value of their investment to $1.046 billion.
The twins used part of their settlement with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to buy $11million worth of bitcoins early on
Winklevii tried to create an ETF or an Exchange Traded Fund for the cryptocurrency, which would have opened it up to institutional investing.
That didn’t happen as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the application, citing the possibility of fraud.
The twins, who also competed as rowers in 2008 Beijing Olympics, still don’t get close to their archnemesis Zuckerberg’s net worth of $70 billion. Source: Pocket News