Save over 40% when you secure your tickets today to TNW Conference 💥 Prices will increase on November 22 →

This article was published on December 5, 2017

Winklevoss twins turn Zuckerberg’s money into Bitcoin billions


Winklevoss twins turn Zuckerberg’s money into Bitcoin billions

The Winklevoss twins are officially Bitcoin billionaires.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (hereafter: Winklevi), are perhaps most famous for suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg after he allegedly stole their idea and turned it into the social media goliath now known as Facebook. It’s a shame, really.

From the outside, it seems the Winklevi have lived a charmed life. While the two aren’t conjoined twins to the best of our knowledge, they certainly seem to be attached at the hip. Both showed a fondness for the classics, studying Latin and Ancient Greek while attending elite private academies before enrolling in Harvard, together. In their time at Harvard, both rowed crew, majored in economics, and joined the same clubs: The Porcellian Club and The Hasty Pudding Club.

Even reading their Wikipedia page makes them sound like the same person:

They enrolled at Harvard University in 2000 for their undergraduate studies where they majored in economics, earning B.A. degrees and graduating in 2004. At Harvard, they were members of the men’s varsity crew, the Porcellian Club and the Hasty Pudding Club.

In 2009, they began graduate business study at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and completed MBA degrees in 2010. While at Oxford, the brothers were members of Christ Church, and rowed in the Blue Boat in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race earning them an Oxford Blue.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

After graduating Harvard, rowing in the Beijing Olympic games, and winning a $65 million payout from Facebook, the twins invested heavily in a largely unproven technology called Bitcoin. The pair sunk $11 million into the burgeoning coin when it was hovering around $120 per coin. They haven’t sold a coin since, according to The Telegraph.

After Bitcoin surged past $10,000 ($11,800 as of this writing) the two were able to add billionaire to their list of accomplishments.

But we’re calling for an asterisk. If they’re conjoined, we’d count them as one person — making the billion dollar portfolio a legit win. If we’re still counting them as two separate people, they’re actually only worth around half a billion each. No matter the classification, both are still chasing Mark Zuckerberg and his nearly $70 billion net worth.

To the Winklevi, we sincerely hope Zuckerberg’s involuntary investment one day gets you, and Bitcoin, within striking distance of your arch nemesis’ net worth.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with


Published
Back to top