A video of the Winklevoss twins singing Journey’s hit song ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ has gone viral as the siblings lose billions of dollars amid a cryptocurrency market crash and are forced to lay off a whopping 10 percent of the staff at their startup.
The video, posted to Twitter by user Arch Nem on Thursday, shows Tyler singing the hit song off-key at a club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, while Cameron played an electric guitar.
Both twins wore their hair slicked back at the concert, which Arch Nem described as ‘by far one of the strangest and most tragically hilarious/infuriating things I’ve ever witnessed.’
The New Jersey leg of their national tour came just one week after the 40-year-old twins laid off 10 percent of the staff at their cryptocurrency startup, Gemini, citing difficulties related to ‘current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil.’
‘Today is a tough day, but one that will make Gemini better over the long run,’ the brothers told staff members in a message on June 2, according to the New York Post.
‘Constraint is the mother of innovation and difficult times are a forcing function for focus, which is critical to the success of any startup.’
Since then, 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.
By Monday, Bitcoin – the world’s largest cryptocurrency token – reached its lowest level since December 2020 to trade at below $23,000, down from a record high of almost $69,000 in November. And on Tuesday, it was trading at $22,130.40.
As a result, the Winklevoss twins and five other billionaires who made their riches on cryptocurrency have lost a combined $114 billion and trading platforms have had to lay off much of their workforce.
A video of the Winklevoss twins performing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ just one week after they laid off 10 percent of their workforce at a cryptocurrency startup has gone viral on social media
The video shows Tyler, left, and Cameron, right, performing an off-key rendition of the song in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Thursday as the 40-year-old twins lose billions of dollars amid a cryptocurrency market crash
On Tuesday, Bitcoin – the world’s largest cryptocurrency – was trading at $22,130.40 – reaching its lowest level since December 2020
The cryptocurrency market continued to plummet on Monday amid fears of an impending recession with federal banks across the world contemplating increasing their interest rates
Crypto markets have dived in the past few weeks as rising interest rates and surging inflation hurt riskier assets across financial markets. The collapse in May of the TerraUSD and Luna tokens also shook the industry.
Since Saturday, nearly $200 million of the cryptocurrency market had been lost, according to CNBC, with major cryptocurrency lending company Celsius Network freezing withdrawals and transfers, citing ‘extreme’ conditions.
In a blog post, the company said it had frozen withdrawals, as well as transfers between accounts, ‘to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets.’
‘We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,’ the New Jersey-based company said.
The company’s decision triggered a slide across the cryptocurrency market, with their values dropping below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since January 2021.
In the aftermath, Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, also paused withdrawals for several hours, blaming ‘stuck transaction’ that caused a backlog in trades.
Changpeng Zhao, 44, the founder of Binance, has now seen his personal fortune – once the world’s 11th largest, fall 89 percent to $10.2 billion, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old CEO of crypto trading platform FTX, has seen his fortune decline 66 percent since it peaked at $26 billion, according to Bloomberg.
He had poured $16 million into Super PACs in April, making him one of the top donors to outside groups, and said he expects to give more than $100 million to Democrats in the next presidential election.
Mike Novogratz, 57, meanwhile, saw his net worth fall on Monday to $2.1 billion after trying to stake a comeback on cryptocurrency following the 2015 liquidation of his Fortress Investment Group fund.
And Coinbase Global founders Brian Armstrong, 39, and Fred Ehrsam, 34 – who were once worth a combined $18.1 billion have seen their fortunes shrink to just $2.1 billion each, as shares of their company – the largest U.S. crypto exchange – fell 79 percent.
On Tuesday, Armstrong announced that the company would have to lay off 18 percent of its work force.
In a memo to employees, he wrote: ‘Our team has grown very quickly (>4x in the past 18 months) and our employee costs are too high to effectively manage this uncertain market.
‘The actions we are taking today will allow us to more confidently manage through this period even if it is severely prolonged,’ he continued, concluding with: ‘Know that we made these hard decisions to ensure our future is bright.’
Changpeng Zhao, 44, the founder of Binance, left, has seen his personal fortune fall 89 percent to $10.2 billion, while Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old CEO of crypto trading platform FTX, right, has seen his fortune decline 66 percent since it peaked at $26 billion
Mike Novogratz, who tried to stake his comeback in cryptocurrency, saw his net worth fall on Monday to $2.1 billion
On Friday, the United States Labor Department announced that inflation reached 8.6 percent in May 2022 – the highest it has been since December 1981
The tumbling cryptocurrency market comes amid fears of a worldwide recession as major central banks plan to hike interest rates to tame inflation.
On Friday, the United States Labor Department reported that the consumer price index jumped 1 percent in May from the prior month, for a 12-month increase of 8.6 percent – topping the recent peak seen in March and hitting its highest level since December 1981.
Federal Reserve officials are now expected to increase interest rates by 75 basis points – larger than the 50-basis point increase traders had come to expect.
‘What you’re seeing in the market is … fear, uncertainty and doubt,’ Nirmal Ranga, the head of trading and technical analysis for crypto exchange ZebPay told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia.
‘Technically, markets look oversold, and there has to be some floor that we’re going to hit in Bitcoin in the coming future.’
The surge of interest in crypto lending led to concerns from regulators, especially in the United States, who are worried about investor protections and systemic risks from unregulated lending products.
David Gerard, an author and crypto expert, said a lack of regulation has doomed the industry anyone who started investing in crypto in the last six months have instead been sold ‘magic beans’.
‘You can’t get rich for free. You’d think that was obvious, but people keep hoping there’s a way out and that they’ll get ahead, but it’s always a false hope,’ he said. ‘Some people do great but more people get absolutely wrecked.’