Key Takeaways
- Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss got their first big paycheck via a $65 million settlement from Facebook.
- In the 2010s, they invested $11 million in Bitcoin and have held on to most of it since.
- When the Bitcoin market crashed on Oct. 10, the Winklevosses’ net worth took a massive hit.
When the price of Bitcoin crashed on Oct. 10, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss lost more than half a billion dollars from their combined net worth. Yet they remain among the wealthiest and most prominent figures in the cryptocurrency world.
Known for their early legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s origins and their pioneering investments in Bitcoin, the Winklevoss twins have parlayed a single lawsuit into a digital asset empire.
The Facebook Lawsuit: Turning a Legal Battle Into Capital
The foundation of the Winklevoss brothers’ wealth began with their 2008 settlement with Facebook.
After alleging that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social networking site, they received a $65 million settlement, $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock, valued at $19 per share at the time.
By the time Facebook went public in May 2012, the value of the brothers’ stake had effectively doubled.
Public comments suggest the Winklevosses liquidated most of their Facebook stock in the early 2010s to fund other ventures, including cryptocurrency purchases.
The Winklevoss Brothers’ Bitcoin Bet
The Winklevoss twins are known for their early investments in Bitcoin.
In a 2013 interview, the brothers claimed to have accumulated $11 million worth of the cryptocurrency at a time when it was trading at around $120 per coin. That would imply they purchased over 91,000 BTC.
Over the years, the Winklevosses have repeatedly emphasized that they are long-term Bitcoin holders, and there is little evidence that they have sold more than a small portion of their coins.
Diversification and Crypto Venture
The Winklevoss twins didn’t stop at Bitcoin.
In 2014, they founded Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange aimed at institutional clients and high-net-worth investors. In 2019, they acquired the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.
Through their family office, Winklevoss Capital, the brothers have invested in other digital assets besides Bitcoin, including Ethereum, Tezos, and ZCash.
Winklevoss Capital is also an active venture capital investor that has backed crypto companies like Animoca Brands, Messari, and YellowCard.
Calculating The Winklevoss Twins’ Net Worth
By most estimates, the Winklevoss twins are still among the largest individual Bitcoin holders, retaining at least 70,000 BTC, worth $8 billion today.
Meanwhile, an analysis of SEC filings suggests the brothers retain around 75 million Gemini shares, worth $1.525 billion as of Oct. 28.
Combining these figures, which account for the bulk of the Winklevosses’ assets, the twins have a combined net worth of at least $9.52 billion.
Before October’s crypto market crash, Bloomberg estimated their net worth to be even higher, $7.57 billion each, or $15.14 billion combined. However, the next day, that figure had plummeted by $730 million.
While Bitcoin recovered around half of its mid-October losses over the next two weeks, the market downturn also dragged on Gemini stock, which declined 20% between Oct. 10 and Oct. 28, knocking the Winklevosses off Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index of the world’s richest 500 people.
In Their Own Words
“Money is a social network at the end of the day.”
“If [Bitcoin] was going to go mainstream, we would have to build infrastructure that could support that growth, and that’s when you [Tyler] started thinking about Gemini.”
“We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.”
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
