This is the first time they've ever secured financing from external sources, and as a result, Gemini now commands a valuation of $7.1 billion.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have unveiled plans to take on one of their oldest rivals — Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.
The twins, who co-founded the Gemini crypto exchange, have just completed a $400 million funding round.
This is the first time they've ever secured financing from external sources, and as a result, Gemini now commands a valuation of $7.1 billion.
It's a deal that has profound ramifications for their net wealth, too. According to Forbes, the brothers had a collective worth of about $6 billion in April. Fast forward to now, and this is closer to $10 billion.
Speaking to the publication, Cameron and Tyler revealed that the exchange plans to go toe-to-toe with Zuckerberg on the metaverse. The twins famously won a multimillion-dollar settlement from Facebook after alleging that the idea for the social networking site had been stolen from them. Cameron told Forbes:
"There's these two parallel paths, in terms of technology right now. There's a centralized path, like Facebook or Fortnite, that is one step away from being a metaverse, and that's totally fine. But there is another path, which is the decentralized metaverse and that's the metaverse where we believe there's greater choice, independence and opportunity, and there is technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals."
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The Winklevosses are planning to "build a Gemini experience in different metaverses, where you can go into Gemini and trade, but it would be immersive instead of on your phone."
Morgan Creek Digital led the funding round for Gemini, and its general partner Sachin Jaitly said:
"Their vision for the role of crypto in redesigning money, the financial system, art, and the Internet, and their track record of incubating and scaling innovative technologies, gives us confidence in Gemini's ability to continue to be an industry leader."
Cameron and Tyler are known for their bullish stance on Bitcoin, and they have repeatedly advocated for a price of $500,000 per BTC — a milestone that would allow the cryptocurrency to overtake the market capitalization of gold.
In response to the digital asset's recent correction, Cameron wrote on Wednesday:
"The battle for 60K is raging. Spartans HODL the line!"
