Blockchain Books
Bitcoin Billionaires
A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption
Ben Mezrich's breezy Hollywood-ready account of the Winklevoss twins' second act, in Bitcoin.
Ben Mezrich is the man who turned the Facebook founding story into The Accidental Billionaires, which became The Social Network. This is the sequel for the Winklevoss twins specifically — the chapter of their lives that begins after the Facebook settlement, when they pivot to Bitcoin and end up as some of its largest holders. It is, to its credit, exactly what it advertises: a fast, cinematic, slightly trashy narrative that you can finish on a flight.
Who it's for
Readers who want to be entertained more than informed. If you liked The Accidental Billionaires or you enjoy the Michael Lewis school of "characters as a way into a subject," this scratches the same itch. It's also useful as a way into the post-Facebook history of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss if you only knew them as villains in Aaron Sorkin's screenplay.
What it does well
Mezrich is a professional storyteller, and the structure works. The Ibiza-to-Bitcoin pivot, the early days of the Gemini exchange, the failed ETF applications, the slow accumulation while everyone else was laughing — it all reads like the spec script of a movie, because that is more or less how Mezrich writes. The pacing is good, the cast is small enough to follow, and the moments of genuine drama (the night the twins decide to actually buy Bitcoin in size, the Charlie Shrem arrest) land.
Where it falls short
It is, frankly, a press release with footnotes. Mezrich appears to have had near-total cooperation from the Winklevosses, and the book reads that way: their judgment is consistently vindicated, their rivals are consistently wrong, their motives are consistently pure. Charlie Shrem in particular is treated with a sympathy that doesn't really survive the actual facts of his case.
There's also almost no technical content. You will learn nothing about Bitcoin's mechanics, nothing serious about exchanges, and nothing about the broader ecosystem outside the Winklevoss orbit. As a piece of crypto-adjacent entertainment it's fine. As a piece of crypto reporting, it's slight.