Advertisement

The Winklevoss twins have seen about $600 million wiped off their bitcoin wealth in 2 days (FB)

winklevoss
winklevoss

REUTERS/Stephen Lam



Bitcoin, along with its cryptocurrency companions, has dropped massively in the past two days.

For those holding on to their coins for dear life, it's been a loss of roughly 34%. For the Winklevoss twins, who hold an estimated 120,000 bitcoins, that comes to a loss of about $600 million.

The twins, who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, bought their original bitcoins with part of the $65 million settlement from the case. The coins were worth less than $10 a piece back then.

Now, Bitcoin is trading below $10,000 for the first time since November. The currency has seen a colossal drop after fears of a South Korean crackdown spooked investors on Thursday. The country is reportedly working on a bill that would shut down exchanges in the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also hinted that a crackdown in Russia is on the horizon. The president was reported saying that tighter regulations would be "definitely required" soon.

The Winklevoss bitcoin fortune seemed to top out around $1.3 billion in mid-December. With this week's losses, it would sit closer to $700 million. To be sure, the Winklevoss twins have not publically disclosed the exact number of bitcoins they hold, and the twins could have sold a number of coins to realize their gains. And of course the bulk of their wealth was created by the rapid rise of bitcoin prices. 

Besides holding the digital assets, the Winklevoss twins founded their own bitcoin exchange called Gemini. The exchange worked with Cboe to launch its bitcoin futures contracts in December. The exchange has been plagued by regular outages before and after the launch of the contracts.

Other cryptos were not exempt from what pundits have been calling a bloodbath. Most of the major cryptocurrencies are down by double digits this week.

Track the price of all the major cryptos here.

bitcoin price
bitcoin price

Markets Insider

NOW WATCH: The chief global strategist at Charles Schwab says stocks will keep soaring in 2018

See Also:

SEE ALSO: The Winklevoss twins are worth about $1.3 billion in Bitcoin alone