Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are known for many things. Billionaire status. Taking on a social media Goliath. And as early bitcoin investors. If you ask them what they want their legacy to be, however, which is precisely what CNN Business did during SXSW 2019, the twins would unequivocally choose crypto.
“Money is the oldest social network and arguably the strongest. Crypto is potentially the strongest network of value ever in the world and will continue to be so. So hopefully pioneers in that space to some extent,” said Cameron.
“Money is the oldest social network and arguably the strongest. #Crypto is potentially the strongest networks of value ever in the world and will continue to be so” – Our Founders, Cameron @winklevoss and @tylerwinklevoss, with @CNN at #SXSW2019 https://t.co/b28r4Qu6AS pic.twitter.com/927xfc9Ykl
— Gemini (@Gemini) March 11, 2019
Join CCN for $9.99 per month and get an ad-free version of CCN including discounts for future events and services. Support our journalists today. Click here to sign up.
The Winklevoss twins, who have been invested in crypto since 2012, are said to possibly be the first “bitcoin billionaires,” having reportedly poured millions of their $65 million settlement with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg into BTC. In 2013, when the bitcoin price peak was approximately $1,000, the Winklevoss portfolio was worth $11 million-plus. They have since expanded their holdings to reportedly include Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Tezos (XTZ), and Filecoin (FIL).
They discussed a future in which the 1 billion unbanked globally and 80 million who are either unbanked or under-banked in the U.S. have the potential to access crypto with just an internet address and a smartphone.
Choosing crypto as their preferred legacy is a way for the Winklevoss’ to shift the narrative away from the company that slipped through their fingertips and toward a movement that is much bigger than Facebook could ever be, with or without an FB Coin. Tyler and Cameron appear to be enjoying having the last laugh.
Market Volatility
The Winklevoss’ were among the first featured speakers at the SXSW event on March 8. They addressed the market volatility with Yahoo Finance, saying “it’s pretty normal for a new asset like crypto to be volatile at different points in time,” describing investors as “excited” and the market as getting “overheated” and ultimately correcting, which is “part of the cycle” before “ending up at a better floor than where we started.”
Gemini’s Legacy
Meanwhile, Gemini, which is the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is solidifying its own legacy as one of the most regulator-friendly trading platforms in the space. That is by design, as the twins summed up their first experience in crypto as the Wild West in that it was “difficult, scary, and risky,” Tyler explained. Gemini is the antithesis of these emotions, placing ease of use, trust, and regulatory compliance atop the priority list.