Student invested $27 in Bitcoin and a few years later was a millionaire
What would you do if you had a time machine? Would you bet on winning lottery numbers, buy shares in Apple – or try your luck with cryptocurrencies when no one has ever heard of them?
That’s exactly what Norwegian student Kristoffer Koch did – albeit quite unintentionally. In 2009, while writing his thesis on cryptography, he came across the then-unknown Bitcoin. As part of a school project, he invested a modest 150 Norwegian kroner, or about 27 US dollars. And then he forgot all about it.
It wasn’t until four years later, in 2013, that he remembered Bitcoin again, thanks to the media boom. He dug out an old encrypted digital wallet, struggled to remember the password – and couldn’t help wondering. The account was lit up with 5,000 bitcoins. In those days’ prices, that meant roughly $886,000. With this money, he bought an apartment in Oslo.
And what’s the craziest part? He only withdrew a fifth of his bitcoin. He probably still owns the rest – and given that one Bitcoin is worth around $80,000 today, his forgotten investment has ballooned into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The original $27 has become a small digital gold mine. Kristoffer’s story had the internet buzzing and stirred up discussions on Reddit. People wondered why they hadn’t bought something then, too. “5000 BTC for $27? That’s half a billion today. That’s crazy!” wrote one commenter. Another added: “This story inspired me to buy my first bitcoin in 2014. I’m grateful.”
Today, stories like this are rare. Bitcoin is a global phenomenon, and most investors only come in when the price is high. But Kristoffer Koch’s story shows that sometimes a forgotten school project can change a life.
Photo source: www.pexels.com
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