Over the past decades, true fans of the virtual currency have transformed bitcoin from a coin that until recently caused skeptical smiles among most representatives of the financial world, into a new kind of expensive asset. And today we see skeptical, but quite blissful smiles on the faces of those who once believed in the magic of the digital coin with all their heart. Who are these visionary lucky ones?
The list of successful crypto investors is rightly headed by Cameron Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler, who once accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea of the social network Facebook from them. The fact is that the first entrepreneurs hired Zuckerberg to create a prototype of Facebook, and later credited him with stealing their idea. To quickly say goodbye to the extravagant brothers, Zuckerberg paid them a symbolic amount, which, in 2012 the Winklevoss were among the first famous people to invest in bitcoin. Needless to say, all and sundry made fun of the twins then. They say that the cunning people decided to make money in the most strange and detached-from-reality way by investing in virtual currency. However, later BTC began to break record after record, and more and more adherents of classic assets began to invest in the digital coin.
And the Winklevoss brothers, by the way, could not completely forgive Zuckerberg. On the day that bitcoin's value topped $40,000 and then $41,000, one of the brothers tweeted that Bitcoin had overtaken Facebook's $FB in market capitalization. Talk about an insidious revenge. However, it is difficult to accuse the twins of bragging or overconfidence – the latest increase in the value of cryptocurrencies gave each of the Winklevoss about $1.4 billion, which is twice as much as, for example, in December last year.
Of course, in 2020, the stock market brought tangible profits to many investors, but the owners of bitcoin in this list of lucky ones clearly occupy the first lines. Recall that from the beginning of January last year to the present day, the S&P 500 index has increased by 17%, and during the same period, BTC has grown by 400%. Feel the difference, as they say.
But what was the reason for such a spectacular rally? The answer is obvious - the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the Fed to print trillions of dollars to support the global economy. In this regard, investors looked at bitcoin with new eyes and began to perceive it as a protection against inflation. Unlike the price rally of 2017, when the main digital coin soared in value from $1,000 to $19,000 due to the interest of retail investors, in 2020 and 2021, the growth of BTC is due to significant institutional investments and reduced requirements for buying and storing cryptocurrency.
Last year, the well-known payment company, Square, invested $50 million of corporate funds in bitcoin, and at the moment this investment is estimated at $161 million. The investment company, Northern Trust, said that it will soon simplify the process of storing bitcoins, litecoins, some altcoins, and Bitcoin Cash for customers. The largest payment system PayPal has allowed 300 million of its users to buy BTC and spend it from more than 20 million merchants supported by the service.
Of course, over the past decade, many investors in the digital currency market have become significantly rich, and some of them have even become cryptomillionaires. It is difficult to say whether they foresaw such success or bought digital coins as a fun innovation, but the fact remains that in 2021, the virtual coin brought them considerable luck.