With bitcoin reaching $10,000 in the past few days it looks like we’ve got some of our first bitcoin billionaires. Brothers Winklevoss, Cameron and Tyler, are now likely to be bitcoin billionaires after they made an $11 million bet on the cryptocurrency several years ago.
While it’s not clear how many bitcoins the brothers have altogether, estimates put the stash at around 100,000 BTC, which is worth more than a billion dollars worth. The pair, famous for their spat with Mark Zuckerberg as popularised in the film, The Social Network, launched their own bitcoin online exchange and venture capital fund.
Two years ago, Cameron Winklevoss went on the record saying “We’ve never sold a bitcoin, we’re in it for the long haul.” If they kept true to that then they should be fairly pleased with themselves right now.
Soon after the cryptocurrency topped $10,000 we got news that CME would begin futures trading in the digital asset later in the month, with other companies getting involved in the near future too. As more and more people get into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies it’s likely that we could see further price increases.
A popular theory to explain the stages of bitcoin’s growth says that the initial price rise to $1,000 was done on the back of technologists getting involved, at this point, the barrier to entry was fairly high. Since 2014, investors have begun getting involved with the technology, further pushing the price to $10,000. The theoretical third stage is the involvement of a wider proportion of the public; with this involvement, the price is being predicted to rise to new heights of up to $100,000.
Source: The Age
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