DeutschThe Winklevoss brothers, also known as Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, are entrepreneurs and investors in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The two brothers gained notoriety through their role in the founding of Facebook. Since then, they have been active as pioneers in the crypto industry.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were born on August 21, 1981 in Southampton, New York. They studied at Harvard University, where they were active in the university’s rowing team and became friends with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The two brothers developed the idea of developing a website through which fellow students can interact socially. The idea for “HarvardConnection” was born. After the once chief developer had left the project, there was a first meeting of the brothers with Mark Zuckerberg. They explained to him how HarvardConnection works and always emphasized the importance of being “first on the market”.
Mark Zuckerberg’s job was to finish the website for launch. He agreed, but instead worked on a competing product, allegedly using the source code from HarvardConnection. His website “thefacebook.com” was registered by Zuckerberg on January 11, 2004 and enjoyed great enthusiasm.
The brothers later claimed that Zuckerberg had stolen their original idea of “HarvardConnection” and used it as the basis for Facebook. A long-standing legal dispute finally ended with a settlement payment from Zuckerberg to the Winklevoss brothers of $65 million.
The Brothers in the Crypto Scene
With the capital received from the settlement with Mark Zuckerberg, the twins founded “Winklevoss Capital Management” in 2012. Through this, the brothers invest in various tech startups. All this happened at a time when a technical achievement was also able to capture the attention of the whole world: Bitcoin. Through acquaintances, the siblings became aware of the cryptocurrency and dealt intensively with it.
In 2013, they bought bitcoins worth 11 million US dollars, which at that time accounted for about 1 percent of all existing bitcoins. This purchase made them the largest Bitcoin holders in the world.
In 2014, the Winklevoss brothers founded the crypto trading platform Gemini, which allows users to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. Gemini is headquartered in New York and is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The platform is known for its security measures, including the use of multi-factor authentication and the storage of customer funds in a cold offline storage.
In 2018, the brothers filed a petition with the SEC requesting the creation of a Bitcoin ETF to make it easier for investors to access Bitcoin investments. However, the petition was rejected.
The Winklevoss brothers also played an important role in creating security standards for crypto trading platforms by equipping Gemini with state-of-the-art security features. This helped to build users’ trust in cryptocurrencies and increase their acceptance.
Investment in the Metaverse
With the renaming of Facebook to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg invested 10 billion US dollars in 2021 in the construction of his own digital parallel world – the Metaverse. The Winklevoss brothers’ response came about a month later. Gemini was able to raise 400 million US dollars in a financing round. According to the brothers, all the capital raised will be invested in the development of its own digital space.
While Meta is trying to find a centralized solution for a metaverse, Gemini’s approach lies in decentralization. In this context, the crypto exchange cooperated with “The Sandbox”, an all-known Metaverse game. There, it already bought several properties in April 2021.
