Bitcoin has been around for over a decade now, and in this time it’s managed to become one of the most popular currencies across the globe. Following it’s legendary rise, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of people who developed avid interest in the cryptocurrency that have resulted in some truly incredible stories over the years.
We’re happy to report that while a lot of these stories can get pretty wild, the majority of them have a positive outcome that gives us hope for the future of Bitcoin. Without further ado, here are some of the craziest Bitcoin stories you’ll have the pleasure of reading.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
In its early days, Bitcoin was barely worth enough to get you a cheap hotdog from a food truck!
While this certainly worked as a deterrent for tons of people, one anonymous person believed in the potential Bitcoin held and over a year reportedly managed to buy over 12,000 Bitcoin. Getting busy with life, our anonymous hero decided to put Bitcoin on the back burner to focus on other things. But they never truly forgot about this little treasure. Periodically checking the latest updates on the cryptocurrency, its worth and how their small investment was faring.
By the time 2013 came and Bitcoin prices had skyrocketed to $1,000 per Bitcoin, the person was sitting on a multimillion-dollar fortune! Showing a great deal of restraint and patience, our hero started selling his stash little by little as to not attract any attention. With quite a big sum on his hands, the individual invested on multiple fronts to secure his future.
The most shocking thing about the whole story – this person kept his job despite his fast-growing fortune!
If that’s not immense willpower then we don’t know that is.
The Teenage Millionaire
This story has become quite popular over the years, so we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already heard of it. Still, even if you have, it’s definitely worth the second read. Bitcoin trading has become quite a big trend recently, with incredible guides, software, and apps such as bitcoinstorm.io being released constantly to help us achieve our cryptocurrency dreams. This type of advanced trading software can help us easily navigate the Bitcoin trading process and potentially make us millions, but the story of Erik Fineman and his path to Bitcoin fortune comes from a time before all of this!
After receiving $1,000 as a birthday gift from his grandmother when he turned 11, instead of spending them on the latest gaming console like most other kids his age, Eric Fineman decided to invest his money in Bitcoin! This happened back in 2011 when you could get Bitcoin for as low as 11$, so naturally, a few years later his investment paid off when his Bitcoin amassed him a staggering $100,000! The savvy young entrepreneur used his earning to start an online education company, which lead him to a path of becoming a millionaire before he even turned eighteen!
The Lost USB Drive Fortune
Cryptocurrency and remaining anonymous have gone hand in hand since the birth of Bitcoin. Even its creator, Craig Wright, hid his identity under a pseudonym until just a few years ago.
However, an unidentified Australian man has chosen to conceal his identity, but not because of his Bitcoin success. He’s remaining anonymous because he’s worried about what his wife will do if she finds out how much money he lost.
In 2009, when Bitcoin cost nothing more than a few fractions of a penny, an Australian game developer set up a rig to mine a few coins per day. After having mined “thousands” of coins, he decided to stick them all on a USB drive, in case his PC crashed unexpectedly one day. He then put it to the back of his mind.
However, when Bitcoin reached nearly $1,000 at the end of 2013, he remembered his wise investment and attempted to access the USB drive. Tragically though, the USB drive didn’t work, lost to the sands of time, much like his digital fortune.
“[I plugged] the USB stick back in to try and access the file, but the stick died. It was one of those cheap made-in-China ones,” he said. “Worst mistake of my life,” he said. “Never back up anything on a cheap Chinese-made disk or USB stick.”
This Australian guy’s story is far from uncommon. According to a study from Chainanalysis, nearly one quarter of all Bitcoins are likely lost forever. From lost hard-drives to forgotten keys, there are more almost-millionaires out their than we’ll ever know.
Laszlo Hanyecz, the Man Who Paid $565 Million (as of today’s Bitcoin price) for a Pizza
On May 18, 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz pospted on the Bitcoin Forum that he wanted to use 10,000 Bitcoins (valued at $40 at the time) to buy two large Papa John’s pizzas.
“I’ll pay 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. The best would be two large pizzas, so I can have some left over for tomorrow. You can make your own pizzas. Once they’re done, you can deliver them to my house or arrange a delivery company to deliver them, but I want to use Bitcoin to pay for them. This way, I don’t have to order or make them myself, like room service at a hotel, delivered right to my door. You’ll be pretty happy. If you’re interested, contact me. We can discuss it further. It can be any kind of pizza with onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, and even a weird fish topping is okay.”
On May 22, a cryptography enthusiast “jercos” bought two pizzas for $25 because of a promotion they were running, and delivered the two pizzas to Laszlo, receiving 10,000 Bitcoins. Then, Bitcoin was only valued at $0.003, but if you calculate it based on Bitcoin’s price today ($56,500.00 X 10,000) the amount paid for the Papa John’s pizza comes out to $565 million. That’s one expensive pizza.
So, someone on randomly created a Twitter account that would, every time Bitcoin’s price reached a new high, this story about the two pizzas being sold for 10,000 Bitcoin would be retweeted because, who doesn’t want to acquire 10,000 Bitcoin in a similar fashion?
Mount Everest Cryptocurrency Stunt Ends in Tragedy
When something as compelling as cryptocurrency explodes in the public imagination, the promotional side of things can get a little out of hand. At least, that’s what happened when ASKfm, a popular social media platform, decided to promote its new cryptocurrency by burying some of it at the top of Mount Everest. What could go wrong?
In the hopes of spurring a little attention to their Initial Coin Offering (ICO), four crypto-enthusiasts joined a team of sherpas on the epic journey to leave a nano-ledger with $50,000 worth of ASKT, ASKfm’s coin, at the top of Mount Everest. Miraculously, everyone made the summit and the promotional stunt was seemingly complete.
However, during the descent, it was revealed that one of the Sherpas leading the expedition was left behind, and is now presumed dead. No further details have been revealed about how this transpired, but ASKfm has insisted that the marketing stunt was in good taste, despite the tragic outcome.
ASKT is currently valued at ten cents.
Ok that’s fucked up. Whoever reported on this Bitcoin story and decided to end the article with “ASKT is currently valued at ten cents” is going straight to hell. Funny as shit.. but damn, what a savage.
WIRED Destroys a Fortune
While most cryptocurrency investment stories involve one person becoming a millionaire or losing out on the chance to be a millionaire, entire companies can get in on the action as well. Unfortunately, being a big company doesn’t mean you’re any less likely to miss out on a lot of money.
WIRED, one of the most recognizable tech publications on the planet, tapped into the cryptocurrency world when it was provided with a small mining device to review in 2013. After mining 13 coins and amassing some sizeable wealth, the publication was forced to address the issue of journalistic integrity as far as keeping the gains was concerned.
Employees believed that, even if they were to give away the money to a charity, it could affect how they write about cryptocurrency as a whole. Therefore, they decided to destroy their private key later that year.
“We talked about donating it to a journalism institution, or setting it aside as a scholarship. But we decided that if we gained any benefit from it at all, it would color our future coverage of bitcoin,” said Michael Calore, a senior editor at WIRED since 2006. “So we just destroyed the key, knowing full well that it could eventually be worth six or seven figures.”
Since then, the price has indeed skyrocketed, putting Wired‘s unreachable investment in the multimillions, which has got to hurt pretty bad. But, if you’re going to lose millions in Bitcoin, losing it in the name of journalistic integrity isn’t a bad way to do it.
Wait.. yes, yes it is. That’s a terrible way to do it. What a bunch of idiots. I wonder how many charities and kids were fed with their “journalistic integrity.”
The Bitcoin Hitman Conundrum
Not all Bitcoin stories have a positive spin, and that’s the case with the story of an Italian woman who used Bitcoin to hire a Hitman!
There have been a few cases where Bitcoin has been used for illegal activities throughout the years, but this failed murder plot is one of the strangest. The hired hit was intended for the woman’s boyfriend, but when things with the deal went south, the Denmark native was found guilty resulting in six years of prison time.
On top of this, the woman also lost her resident privileges in Denmark, her home for over three decades.
$423 Million In The Trash
In 2013, a British IT worker named James Howells threw away a hard drive with a digital wallet containing what was then a little-known, virtually worthless cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin.
Fast-forward to today, at the time of writing- a single bitcoin is worth around $56,500. This means that the 7,500 bitcoins stored on James’ hard drive would now be worth $423 million in today’s prices. Now, the Newport, Wales, local has offered his city council a vast sum of money if it allows him to excavate a landfill site where he believes the hard drive has been disposed of.
“I offered to donate 25% — “to the city of Newport in order to distribute to all local residents who live in Newport should I find and recover the bitcoins,” Howells told CNN. Surprisingly, Howells has taken the whole situation pretty well. Despite his luck with Bitcoin, he is still quite active when it comes to trading cryptocurrency.
Asked what he’d do if he does ever manage to recover the hard drive, James Howells said he’d get a Lamborghini – a worthy goal by our standards.
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