- Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – of Facebook founding fame – made their first acquisition, buying a crypto firm helmed by identical twins Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
- The Winklevoss’ Gemini Trust bought Nifty Gateway, a company that lets users buy digital collectibles called “nifties” with credit cards instead of complex crypto wallets.
- Nifties can range from a game item to a token representing ownership of a physical asset, and are tracked on blockchain ledgers.
- The acquisition had “so many great parallels,” Tyler Winklevoss told Bloomberg, and made for “just the right fit.”
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Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss made their first-ever acquisition, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, and the entrepreneurs involved have more than their crypto interests in common.
The Winklevii purchased Nifty Gateway, a business that allows user to buy “nifties” – digital collectibles tracked on a blockchain ledger – with a credit card. The company’s founders, Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, are also identical twins.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Tyler Winklevoss told Bloomberg. “There are so many great parallels, it was just the right fit.”
Nifties can range from an in-game item to a token representing a physical item like a painting or book. Such collectibles are typically purchased with digital-currency wallets, which require several steps and transfers to set up.
The Winklevoss twins rose to fame for their role in Facebook's founding. They now run Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2015 that looks to bring government regulation and legitimacy to the volatile asset.
The Winklevoss' Gemini Trust acquired Nifty for an undisclosed amount, and the two crypto-related ventures will continue to work separately from each other. The arrangement could change, and Nifty services could find their way onto Gemini's platform, according to Bloomberg.
The Cock Foster's platform currently allows users to buy nifties from OpenSea marketplace and the CryptoKitties and Gods Unchained games, according to Bloomberg. Duncan Cock Foster projects nifties to reach 1 billion collectors in the future. The Winklevoss twins are similarly optimistic, telling Bloomberg the nifties industry will eventually dwarf the art, gaming, and collectibles markets.
"All great companies, all great ideas there's a period where you see a truth and many other people don't, and you have to have that conviction," Tyler Winklevoss told Bloomberg.
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