- The Winklevoss twins gained exposure in the biopic "The Social Network" and were involved in a legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook, which ended in a $65 million settlement.
- After the movie's release, the twins founded Winklevoss Capital Management in 2012, a venture capital firm, and later Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange in 2014.
- Each of the Winklevoss twins is worth an estimated $1.4 billion.
David Fincher's The Social Network focuses quite a lot on the Winklevoss twins, whose professional stories are tied to Facebook's origins but continued after the lawsuit depicted in the movie. The 2010 film surrounding Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and how he created the popular social media also gave a fictionalized insight into the real people who had a say on how it happened, like Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, and the Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler. Following the events shown in the movie, most of them continued their careers, and some of the names involved even became billionaires.
With a script from master screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the film stars Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role as Mark Zuckerberg, but he is part of a bigger ensemble. The Social Network's cast also features Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Justin Timberlake as Parker, and Armie Hammer as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The film received praise from both critics and audiences and was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture. The Social Network took many creative liberties, which must be considered when looking into what happened to each of the real people highlighted in the movie, including the Winklevoss twins.
RELATED: The Social Network True Story: 5 Biggest Things The Facebook Movie Got Wrong
The Winklevoss Twins Were Subject To A Lawsuit Against ConnectU
The Legal Battle Ended With a Settlement
In 2004, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, alongside Divya Narendra, launched ConnectU (originally HarvardConnection), a social networking website for students to communicate with each other. They hired Mark Zuckerberg to work on their project, who then launched his own social networking website called TheFacebook, which later became Facebook. The twins filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, accusing him of using their source code and misleading them while working on his own project. After filing, Facebook counter-sued them over The Winklevoss Chang Group's Social Butterfly project.
Related: The Social Network Ending Explained
After long legal battles, in 2008, the two parties agreed to a settlement of $65 million, which included shutting down the ConnectU domain. The twins opted for the form of $20 million in cash and $45 million in stock (via Boston Magazine) for their settlement, which they used to start stockpiling Bitcoin. Part of the lawsuit is shown in The Social Network, but the movie leaves out other important events. For example, in 2011, ConnectU tried to file other complaints against Facebook but eventually decided not to go through with them.
Cameron & Tyler Founded 2 Companies After The Social Network
The Twins Founded Winklevoss Capital Management In 2012 & Gemini In 2014
Following the release of the 2010 movie, The Social Network, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss tried to join new startups in Silicon Valley. They later went on to found two new companies. In 2012, the Winklevoss twins founded Winklevoss Capital Management, a venture capital with headquarters in New York. The company invested in fintech startups, education, games, and more. On April 11, 2012, Tyler and Cameroon Winklevoss revealed they owned approximately 1% of all Bitcoin in circulation, which was worth around $11 million (via TechCrunch).
After their experience with Bitcoin, in 2014, the Winklevoss twins continued their journey with cryptocurrency and founded Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, which went live in 2015. However, their legal issues following the Facebook lawsuit weren't over. In 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Gemini, (via New York Times) along with two other companies, with allegations that it had "defrauded" its investors. The twins are also Olympic-level athletes, and both of them rowed together in the 2008 Olympic Games, where they finished sixth out of 14 countries that qualified for the Olympics. In 2009, Cameron rowed in the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he won a bronze medal.
What Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss' Net Worth Is In 2023
Cameron & Tyler's Net Worth Is $1.4 Billion Each
Mark Zuckerberg went on to become one of the wealthiest men alive. That said, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who also rowed in the Beijing Olympic Games, became the world's first well-known Bitcoin billionaires. Since the twins have been involved in the same businesses, be it in social media, venture capital, or cryptocurrency, and participated together in sports events, the two share the same net worth, estimated at $1.4 billion each, according to Forbes. Besides The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich's 2009 book that inspired The Social Network, the Winklevoss twins are also the inspiration for Mezrich's follow-up book, Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption.
Source: New York Times, TechCrunch, Boston Magazine, Forbes
