Cryptocurrency may be the rage right now but for those of you looking to invest be warned, the market is cruel and will eat you up without a moment’s hesitation.
Just ask the Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, who have lost $1 billion from investing in bitcoin in the fall out of the recent crash in cryptocurrency.
The twins may be familiar to you as they were they famously tried and failed to gain full control of Facebook after they accused founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing it from them. A scenario which was famously played out in David Fincher’s 2010 film The Social Network.
It seems like the Winklevoss’ luck hasn’t gotten any better since failing to gain control of Facebook as they’ve seen the value of their cryptocurrency holdings fall by $922 million in the past month alone.
Investing in 120,000 bitcoins Tyler and Cameron were more susceptible to the market’s unpredictability in cryptocurrency than anyone and it now they’re paying for it – literally. However, don’t feel too sorry for them as they’re not lamenting the loss quite yet, according to Fortune they’re still stinking rich and are still billionaires by bitcoin standards.
Four years earlier the Winklevoss’ made an $11 million investment in bitcoin, they haven’t sold a single coin yet as they have been playing the waiting game to watch it go up in value. Despite failing to get control of Facebook, they still won a major lawsuit picking up a handsome settlement of $65 million.
They used a portion of their winnings to buy into the currency, which was trading at just $120 the time. According to CoinMarketCap since Thursday morning, bitcoin’s value was $11,85, this puts the estimated value of the twin’s holdings at $1.4 billion.
They have grand plans for Bitcoins, other than just sitting on it and watching it grow. Last year they tried to create an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for their holdings. However, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected their application, alluding to the possibility of fraud. Had they received the approval, it would have created an opportunity for ‘institutional investing in the currency’.
The price of bitcoin, which is widely believed to be the strongest and most stable of all the made-up measurements of money, has dropped below $12,000. It seems a far cry from a few days ago when it was a burgeoning pot of gold which promised investors the land of milk and honey after it rose to towards a $20,000 value per coin.
