The Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, could be the richest celebrities in terms of Bitcoin investments as of late October 2017, as their one percent total holdings of the leading digital currency are already worth more than $1 bln.
The twins became infamous for their legal dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the latter’s alleged stealing of their original concept for the Facebook social network.
In a Twitter post, freelance journalist Sid Kalla claimed that the Winklevoss twins are already Bitcoin billionaires as the market value of the leading cryptocurrency already reached the $100 bln mark.
As Bitcoin touches $100 billion in value, don't forget that the Winklevoss twins are officially Bitcoin billionaires (1% BTC supply)
— Sid Kalla (@sidkal) October 30, 2017
The Winklevoss twins’ venture into Bitcoin
The Winklevoss twins claimed that they first learned about the oldest digital currency in 2012. In 2013, they announced that they had purchased one percent of the total supply (120,000 BTC) of Bitcoin at the time. In late 2013, the twins stated in an interview that they did not sell any of their Bitcoins and they keep their wallets in different safes around the world on universal serial bus (USB) drives.
In their announcement in a Reddit AMA, the twins claimed that they were immediately impressed by Bitcoin when they first heard about it in 2012 due to its elegance and very huge potential.
“We first learned about Bitcoin in 2012. Perhaps where you’d least expect — on an island off the coast of Spain in the middle of August. Our first impression was that this was either going to be really big or a complete zero. We were immediately taken in by Bitcoin’s elegance and enormous promise, and as we started to learn more, we became convinced that Bitcoin was the future of money.”
The twins launched their Gemini Bitcoin exchange in 2015.