Billionaire Winklevoss twins’ bizarre gig after laying off staff in cryptocurrency crash
Just days after announcing staff cuts amid a spiralling cryptocurrency crash, billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have gone wild.
Just days after laying off 10 per cent of their staff amid a spiralling cryptocurrency crash, tech billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have gone wild with a heinous rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’ that has broken the internet.
The twins – best known for accusing Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for Facebook – covered the classic Journey tune at a New Jersey rock club after laying off staffers at their cryptocurrency start-up Gemini.
In a bizarre video of the gig, which has gone viral on Twitter, Tyler strains to hit the high notes while Cameron tackles a questionable solo on an electric guitar.
“Uh so I saw the Winklevoss twins’ band?” wrote an attendee who posted the video clip to Twitter, calling the show “by far one of the strangest and most tragically hilarious/infuriating things I’ve ever witnessed”.
The brothers also sold NFTs as band merchandise, according to the Twitter user who posted the video of the show at Asbury Park’s Wonder Bar.
In addition to Journey, the Winklevoss twins have also covered songs by Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, U2, Nirvana, Kings of Leon and The Killers, according to Page Six.
Announcing last week’s lay-offs, the crypto brothers cited difficulties related to “current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil” for forcing them to slash jobs for the first time since they founded Gemini in 2014.
“Today is a tough day, but one that will make Gemini better over the long run,” the brothers said in a note to employees while announcing the lay-offs.
“Constraint is the mother of innovation and difficult times are a forcing function for focus, which is critical to the success of any start-up.”
The staff cuts also came amid a lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accusing the company of making false and misleading statements concerning a bitcoin futures contract the firm was pursuing in 2017.
The brothers have also reportedly personally lost billions of dollars each during the ongoing crypto crash.
They had banked on a crypto comeback following the collapse of TerraUSD last month due to the rise of interest rates and recession fears.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported the brothers had their fortunes invested in crypto start-ups ranging from trading platform Slingshot to tax facilitator Taxbit.
According to their portfolios, the 40-year-old siblings have stakes in about 50 crypto or blockchain start-ups.
Bloomberg reports their fortunes have slumped to $3 billion each, from a high of $5.9 billion, as the cryptocurrency market continues to plummet amid fears of an impending recession.
Their business Gemini is not the only crypto start-up to cut staff as the market continues to tumble.
Crypto exchanges Coinbase and BlockFi are laying off hundreds of staff members, equivalent to a fifth of their workforces, as they struggle to survive.
On Monday, bitcoin – the world’s largest cryptocurrency token – reached its lowest level since December 2020 to trade at below $US23,000 ($A33,000). And on Tuesday, it was trading at $US22,130.40 ($A32,147.59). As of 8am today it has sunk to $US21,500 ($A31,231).
It’s a far cry from the coin’s all-time highs in November last year: Bitcoin was worth almost $US69,000 ($A100,000) while ether was $US4,865 ($A7067) at its peak, 70 per cent more than it is worth now.
Cryptocurrency has been facing a reckoning in recent weeks – and particularly the last few days – as fears mount over a global recession amid rampant inflation and the US central bank hiking interest rates.
On Friday, data found the USA’s inflation rate had reached a new high, rising to 8.6 per cent in May, the worst it’s been since 1981.
Over the weekend, cryptocurrency plunged in reaction to the news.
This Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise its interest rate to combat spiking inflation.
Economists predict the rate will be increased to settle on 0.25 per cent or 1.50 per cent for July, with the central bank doing something similar last month.
Cryptocurrency is closely aligned with the traditional stock market and over the last few days, markets like Dow Jones have tanked and entered a bear run.
– with Alex Turner-Cohen
$415 billion meltdown in record market drop
After a stratospheric rise, a global tech giant has suffered an excruciating bloodbath with investors running for the hills in a day of losses.
ASX finishes month on positive note
The Aussie share market finished the week, and the reporting month of August, in the green as it marked the third straight week of gains.
Aussie shares jump on Fed cut fever
The local sharemarket lifted on Monday as buoyant investors cheered the prospect of a September rate cut in the world’s largest economy.