World's first Bitcoin billionaires got their initial fortune by suing Mark Zuckerberg for $65,000,000
If you've watched David Fincher's The Social Network, chances are you'll know all about Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
Like Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield's Eduardo Saverin, and Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker, the Winklevoss twins are based on real-life people. While they're two distinct people, Armie Hammer went full The Parent Trap and played both Cameron and Tyler.
As depicted in the movie, the Winklevelii sued Zuckerberg and made a not-so-small fortune from it.
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Having helped found ConnectU (originally known as HarvardConnection), the Winklevoss twins claimed that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea and broken an oral contract. Facebook countersued, leading to a settlement that was reportedly valued at $65 million of Facebook stock.
Despite various arguments over what the stock was actually worth, Cameron and Tyler used some of that money to invest $11 million in Bitcoin in March 2013.
They bought about 100,000 Bitcoins, which at the time were worth about $120 each.
As Bitcoin has recently hit a record high of $11,826, the cache has matured nicely.
The 'internet entrepreneur brothers' likely weren't too glum about the Facebook fracas for too long, with them being declared the world's first Bitcoin billionaires.
With Bitcoin soaring to an all-time high after the 2024 American election, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have just claimed the honor, and crunching the numbers, their Bitcoin is actually worth $1.18 billion. The only other person in the world with a Bitcoin wallet that large is the untraceable Satoshi Nakamoto.
Their Bitcoin empire is technically worth half a billion each, but with Forbes' billionaire list predicting their net worth is around $2.7 billion each, they're presumably laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the Bitcoin boom.
These Winklevoss bros are making quite a name for themselves in the cryptocurrency world and beyond, featuring in an episode of Silicon Valley and as the main protagonists in Ben Mezrich's 2019 novel, Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption.
They reportedly held off on selling any of their Bitcoin haul because they wanted to launch an exchange-traded fund in New York.
Still, they used some of their profits to buy seats on Richard Branson's first Virgin Galactic shuttle flight.
Gemini launched as a digital currency exchange in 2014 and has faced problems of its own. In March 2024, Gemini agreed to pay a $37 million fine and refund over $1.1 billion to those who'd used its canceled Earn program. The Earn program was accused of deceiving investors by promising a 'safe way' to earn high-interest earnings.
In terms of where they are today, the combined fortune of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss might be a mere $207.2 billion off Zuckerberg's current worth, but if Bitcoin continues to soar the way it does, they should continue to close that gap.