Who Are Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss? – A Profile on Gemini Exchange Co-Founders
After the hit film ‘The Social Network’ was released in 2010, the Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron quickly rose to fame. Since then, they have been in the limelight, making significant contributions to the development of the crypto industry.
This article dives deep into the lives of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Read on to learn about their personal lives and crypto projects.
Who Are the Winklevoss Brothers?
The Winklevoss brothers, Tyler and Cameron, were born in 1981 in New York but raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. According to their father, Howard Winklevoss, the two have shared a strong bond since childhood.
They went to Greenwich Country Day School for their junior education and later attended Brunswick High School. In 2000, the twins joined Harvard University to pursue business-related courses. Three years later, they planned to build a social networking platform for students called HarvardConnection.
To achieve this, they hired their friend Sanjay Mavinkurve, who was good at programming. But Mavinkurve would leave the project a few months later after Google hired him.
Tyler and Cameron then hired another programmer, Victor Gao, to continue working on HarvardConnection. In January 2004, Gao announced his intention to leave the project and referred his fellow programmer Mark Zuckerberg, who was still a student at Harvard, to the twins.
The Facebook Lawsuit
Zuckerberg agreed to finish the Winklevoss twins’ project in exchange for a certain percentage of equity. At the same time, the programmer was working on his project called Thefacebook.com, popularly known as Facebook today. He launched his platform in February 2004 and quickly gained traction.
When the Winklevoss twins knew about Zuckerberg’s social networking platform, they sent a cease and desist letter to him. A few months later, they launched HaarvardConnection, but it was not as popular as Thefacebook.com.
In late 2004, the brothers filed a suit against Zuckerberg, accusing him of stealing their idea. Four years later, Zuckerberg and the twins agreed to settle their dispute out of court, with the plaintiffs receiving $65 million as a settlement.
How Winklevoss Twins Transitioned to Crypto
In 2012, when the Winklevoss twins were in Ibiza for a vacation, they were introduced to Bitcoin. Although the coin wasn’t popular at the time, the two decided to invest $11 million in BTC. They received 1.37 million coins.
A year later, the duo became early investors in the Bitcoin payment processing platform BitInstant. However, the project founder, Charlie Shrem, was arrested in late 2013 over accusations that BitInstant facilitated money laundering. The platform was later shut down.
The Winklevoss Twins Launch Gemini
Following BitInstant’s failure, Cameron and Tyler decided to create a regulated crypto trading platform, Gemini. It went live in early 2014, facilitating the buying and selling of only Bitcoin. Today, the exchange lists over 80 cryptocurrencies.
Gemini vs. SEC
Gemini has found itself in trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the past. In 2021, the trading platform partnered with crypto lender Genesis to launch the Gemini Earn program, which allowed Gemini users to earn 8% interest on their crypto holdings. However, Genesis couldn’t process customer withdrawals in November 2022 due to its exposure to FTX, a now-collapsed exchange. As a result, Gemini users were left with losses of $900 million.
The SEC leveled charges against Gemini and Genesis, accusing them of offering unlicensed securities to customers through the Gemini Earn program.
The Winklevoss Twins’ Other Projects
Besides Gemini, Tyler and Cameron run an NFT marketplace called Nifty Gateway, which they acquired in 2019. They are also investors in two AI companies, Holocron and Metaphysic.ai. Additionally, the two manage a venture capital firm, Winklevoss Capital, focused on gaming startups and fintech.
The Winklevoss Twins Net Worth
According to data from Forbes, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have a combined net worth of $5.6 billion as of November 2024. The platform ranks them as the 1,260th wealthiest individuals in the world.
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