Bitcoin’s value surge caused an overnight increase of 76 percent in Crypto Co.’s stock price, bringing its overall market value to about $2.9 billion, and Gilbert’s own stake to about $1.1 billion. Then, for about 45 glorious minutes, Gilbert could honestly call himself a billionaire, before that stake retreated to the less psychologically striking $919 million as the company’s stock market rally abated somewhat. Given the Crypto Co. big cheese’s status as a temporary billionaire, you might be surprised that the company’s actual net assets have it operating at a loss: Of course, the company’s success on the stock market is a big flashing red light to many interested parties: Gilbert is far from the only cryptocurrency investor to see unbelievable riches – at least on paper – on an overnight basis. One anonymous trader in the Ethereum blockchain was able to turn a $55 million initial investment into $283 million in less than a month, while Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (the famous “Winklevi” of Facebook fame) were relatively early Bitcoin investors in 2013 with about $11 million worth of bitcoins to their names. Assuming they’ve held onto that stake, it would now be worth nearly $2 billion as of this writing.
