Crypto moguls Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have reached a settlement with the man they accuse of stealing their bitcoin, according to court filings.
They sued Charlie Shrem in November last year, alleging he short-changed them after they hired him to buy bitcoin on their behalf in 2012. At the time, the 5,000 bitcoin were worth about $60,000—but today, they would fetch $26 million.
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The Winklevoss twins are well-known following their portrayal in the 2010 film The Social Network, in which they sue Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, they ended up receiving $65 million from him. When they’re not taking billionaires to court, they’re rowing in the Olympics, founding crypto exchange Gemini, or trying to persuade the Securities and Exchange Commission to let them list a bitcoin fund on NASDAQ.
They founded the Gemini exchange in 2014 only after investing in other brokers, including putting $1.5 million in Shrem’s startup BitInstant. That company closed in January 2014, when Shrem was arrested and charged with money laundering. He spent 15 months in jail.
In December 2017, the Winklevoss bitcoin holding was worth $1.3 billion.
Around 18 months after his release from jail, Shrem was sued by the Winklevoss twins. But the suit has backfired before now, with a judge ordering them to cover $45,000 of his legal fees in February.
A court filing by the judge on April 5 announced the latest settlement, but left open the possibility of resuming proceedings if the settlement was not finalized. A joint statement on April 16 confirmed that the case had been dismissed once and for all.
The Winkelvoss twins have been major players in the cryptocurrency sphere for some time. In December 2017, at the height of the crypto bull market, Business Insider reported that their bitcoin holding was worth $1.3 billion.