'Bitcoin Billionaires' Movie: Winklevoss Twins To Co-produce 'The Social Network' Follow-up

A Bitcoin movie about two people becoming billionaires because of the cryptocurrency was greenlighted by Stampede Ventures.

"Bitcoin Billionaires", based on the book by Ben Mezrich, is a follow-up to his bestseller “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal”, the basis for the Oscar-winning movie “The Social Network”. "Bitcoin Billionaires" began with the fallout from the Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss' legal battle with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Even though the case was eventually settled, the twins found themselves negatively perceived by the public and the media while Zuckerberg became a celebrated billionaire viewed positively because of Facebook's rise.

On their quest to find their next big business move, the twins went to Ibiza where they were introduced to Bitcoin. Eventually, they met Charlie Shrem and Erik Voorhes, who at the time were running a payment processor for Bitcoin. The book then chronicled their pursuit of Bitcoin to eventually become the first “Bitcoin billionaires”.

Stampede Ventures’ Greg Silverman and Jon Berg will be joined by the Winklevoss twins as producers, Deadline reported. Silverman said he knew the twins for a long time and had an early copy of "Bitcoin Billionaires", whose overarching plot centers on Cameron and Tyler redeeming themselves from the backlash in relation to the Facebook legal battle between them and Zuckerberg.

“This is Rocky II meets Wall Street in a world filled with unique and mesmerizing characters. This is going to make an incredible film,” Silverman said.

The twins praised Mezrich’s expertise in “writing about technology revolutions”. "The Accidental Billionaires" chronicled the early days of a social network that now has billions of users since the time it was written.

“Ben understood the promise of cryptocurrency and was serious about telling its story to the world,” they said in a statement to Deadline. They also look forward to sharing the “colorful, frontier days” of cryptocurrency in the film adaption of "Bitcoin Billionaires".

"The Accidental Billionaires" was released in 2009 and spent 17 weeks in the New York Times Bestseller List. Its movie adaptation, "The Social Network", was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three. "Bitcoin Billionaires", released in 2019, was awarded Hudson’s Booksellers Best of the Year and translated into 12 languages. It is currently rated 4.2 out of 5 in Amazon and 3.96 on Goodreads.

The Winklevoss twins were former Olympians turned internet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. They own Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange, established in 2014. In 2018, Forbes listed the twins as part of their "Richest People in Cryptocurrency" list.