Winklevoss twins bank fortunes on crypto comeback

Entrepreneurs Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss in 2017. Photo / Getty Images

The Winklevoss twins are banking on a crypto comeback following the collapse of TerraUSD due to the rise of interest rates and recession fears.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports brothers Cameron and Tyler have their fortunes invested in crypto start-ups from trading platform Slingshot to tax facilitator Taxbit to Praxis.

According to their portfolios, the 40-year-old siblings have stakes in about 50 crypto or blockchain start-ups.

Despite the collapse of TerraUSD and digital token coin, Luna, the pair were still receiving funds from venture capitalists in April and made US$5 billion ($7.7b) during the first quarter.

While bitcoin and ether fell 50 per cent during last year's peak, Venture capital fundraising, US crypto or blockchain firms are on track to fall short of last year's deal count, according to PitchBook data.

"We believe in investing in the next generation of builders and visionaries who are pushing the boundaries of what's possible," Cameron Winklevoss said in a statement provided to Bloomberg earlier this year.

"They are risk takers who want to build a better human experience and aren't afraid to think big and fail greatly."

The news comes after the crypto tycoons lost about 40 per cent of their respective fortunes, or more than US$2 billion ($3b) each.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the brothers were slammed as investors look to dump riskier assets during the global economic turmoil.

At the time, bitcoin had traded at US$27,787.20 ($42,966), down 4 per cent from a day earlier and off nearly 60 per cent from the all-time high of US$68,990.90 ($106,680) it hit in November.

Dubbed the "world's first bitcoin billionaires", the brothers are worth US$6.4 billion ($9.9b), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Winklevoss twins famously accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for Facebook. They later received a settlement of US$65 million ($100m) and used some of that money to invest in bitcoin in 2013.

The two co-founded the crypto platform Gemini and reportedly bought 1 per cent of all bitcoin that was in circulation at the time.