From 50 Cent To The Winklevoss Twins, 5 Bitcoin Early Adopters Who Are Now Rich

Since Bitcoin experienced its rapid rise in 2017, people have started clamoring to invest in the cryptocurrency in hopes of striking it rich. Odds are the new investors will never see the same returns early adopters got. Here are five people who get into Bitcoin early and made millions off their investments.

Palmer Luckey

Palmer Luckey didn’t need Bitcoin to make him rich. The founder of virtual reality company Oculus was set for life the day Facebook bought the company for $2 billion in 2014. Despite that, the tech-savvy 25-year-old managed to increase his fortunes by investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency including Dogecoin.

In a 2014 interview with Forbes for the magazine’s annual “30 Under 30” list, Luckey was asked what advice he would give to his younger self. His answer : “Buy more Bitcoins.”

“I wish I had bought a lot more Bitcoins,” he said. “I did buy a lot. But I wish I had bought more.”

The Winklevoss Twins

Another pair of investors who got rich off of Facebook first and then expanded their wealth with cryptocurrency, the Winklevoss twins—Cameron and Tyler—have been two of the most vocal supporters of Bitcoin and have done everything in their power to capitalize off the cryptocurrency.

The pair allegedly invested nearly $11 million in Bitcoin in 2013 and have seen their wealth grow as the cryptocurrency has taken off in recent years. They were believed to be the first ever Bitcoin billionaires, though they lost the status after Bitcoin’s price took a tumble and lost nearly 50 percent of its value during the first weeks of 2018.

50 Cent

50 Cent was rich and famous well before Bitcoin existed, though the rapper and actor has had a fair amount of money troubles along the way. While 50 Cent can still make money off his music, it was his decision in 2014 to accept Bitcoins as payment for his album “Animal Ambition” that has ended up paying dividends for the artist.

According to 50 Cent, he raked in about 700 Bitcoins that fans used to pay for the record. Then he completely forgot about it until recently, when he discovered those digital tokens are worth about $7.7 million.

Tim Draper

A venture capitalist who already made his billions thanks to an early investment in video communications tool Skype, Draper also got in on the ground floor of Bitcoin. The investor scooped up 30,000 Bitcoins in a government auction held in 2014 for Bitcoins seized from the infamous dark web marketplace Silk Road.

Assuming Draper held on to his coins—which he would have bought for about $350 a piece at the time—they are now worth over $330 million.

Roger Ver

A person doesn’t get the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” for nothing. Roger Ver is about as evangelical as they come when it comes to Bitcoin. He first starting investing in the cryptocurrency in 2011 and has dumped more than $1 million into cryptocurrency-related investments.

A founder of the Bitcoin Foundation and the owner and CEO of Bitcoin.com, Ver has a lot of influence in the Bitcoin community—and a lot of money from it, too. Ver bought $25,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2011, which is now estimated to be worth $425 million.