I’m Cameron. And I’m Tyler. And we are the Winklevoss twins.
You’ll know of them from The Social Network,
the film about the origins of Facebook and their legal spat with its founder,
Mark Zuckerberg.
They are also Harvard graduates and Olympic athletes.
These days, they’re best known as Bitcoin billionaires
after launching cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in 2014.
And they’re looking to expand in Singapore.
Singapore is one of the largest markets for Gemini
and we think it’s going to continue to be one of our most significant markets
and our home for our growth in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region.
We are looking to expand the team.
Right now, it’s 25 and we could see that number going up to 100 pretty quickly.
We’re looking to hire
folks in sales,
in engineering and compliance and other roles.
We have a very complete team and we’re going to continue to build on that.
We think that it’s really important
for there to be clarity around regulation
and how companies can innovate responsibly around the world.
And that clarity is starting to happen.
It exists here in Singapore.
It looks like it’s happening – going to happen – in Europe and also the UAE.
The US is not there right now, but we’re hopeful that eventually, we’ll get there.
The fact is that crypto is up for grabs,
and the countries that embrace it
as the future – and set up
frameworks with clarity that allow companies to move there
and build and make that their home – are going to win.
And if that’s the US – great.
But if not, it will happen somewhere else.
So we bought Bitcoin and then we started investing in a Bitcoin company –
BitInstant – and ultimately
the CEO and founder didn’t get compliance right.
So he ended up in jail
and that investment went to zero.
But we learned a lot about the importance of compliance
and how to do things right, which informed us later on
when we started to build Gemini.
Are you guys twins?
Are you related? We get asked that a lot.
And then the next question is: “Oh, you must get asked that a lot?”
Never, Never.
Or who’s older?
Interviewer: And do you know?
We don’t know.
Our parents never told us.
I think people probably think
we’re identical in every way.
And that’s not true.
Obviously, we look alike but I’m left-handed.
I’m right-handed.
And believe it or not, we’re not the same person.
Happiness.
If you have your health and happiness,
then everything else will follow.
Happiness and peace are forms of wealth.
I think a lot of times, people think that
money will buy you that happiness and buy you that wealth.
But there’s a big difference between having money and being wealthy.
And I don’t mean just wealthy
from the standpoint of your bank account, but wealthy in terms of your health,
your well-being, your happiness and all of that.
So I think it’s way more important to be happy.
I think clairvoyance. That way I could see
where the price of Bitcoin and crypto
was going.
I’d choose the same.
We’re twins.