The Telegraph called first Bitcoin billionaires

The twin brothers who sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole the idea for Facebook are worth more than $1bn after capitalising on the astonishing rise in Bitcoin.

An $11m (£8m) bet on Bitcoin made by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss over four years ago has ballooned by almost 10,000pc after last week’s price surge. It is believed to be the first billion-dollar return made by a cryptocurrency investor, a landmark moment for the controversial asset.

Bitcoin hit $11,395 last week, capping a boom that started a year ago and accelerated dramatically in recent days, despite a chorus of warnings about its threat to financial stability and potential for criminal exploitation. The rise has made millionaires out of many of its early backers but the Winklevoss twins are believed to be the first public figures to have turned an investment into more than $1bn.
The pair, who attended Harvard with Mr Zuckerberg, won a $65m payout from Facebook in 2008, claiming he had stolen their idea. In March 2013, they used $11m of the settlement to buy roughly 1pc of the world’s supply of Bitcoin in March 2013, when one coin was worth around $120.

The hoard has not been disclosed but is estimated to be around 100,000 Bitcoins – worth over $1bn at the cryptocurrency’s peak last week. Since their clash with Facebook, the twins – who rowed for the US at the Beijing Olympics – have re-styled themselves as Bitcoin entrepreneurs, launching their own online exchange and venture capital fund.

The pair are believed to have held onto their Bitcoin investments in the hope of launching an exchange-traded fund in New York, although they have struggled to gain approval from financial regulators. “We’ve never sold a bitcoin, we’re in it for the long haul,” Cameron Winklevoss said two years ago.

Tyler Winklevoss, who has said the total value of the currency could be trillions, told The Telegraph last year that bitcoin was “like a better version of gold”. A spokesman for the twins did not respond to requests for comment.

Only a handful of Bitcoin wallets have holdings worth more than $1bn, including the cryptocurrency’s mysterious inventor, who has never been unmasked and is known only by the online pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The Winklevoss twins are among the most high-profile of its big backers.
Primary source of information The Thelegraph.