A Norwegian man, who invested in Bitcoin when the cryptocurrency was at its nascent stage, made a staggering windfall. Kristoffer Koch was reminded of his investment when the meteoric rise of Bitcoin in 2013 made headlines in the media. By then, his $24 investment had turned into $850,000, the BBC reported.
A Forgotten Fortune
Koch shared his story with local news outlet NRK. He shared that back in 2009, he wrote his master's thesis on encryption and came across the then-completely unknown cryptocurrency called Bitcoin. Koch said he bought Bitcoins worth $24 almost for fun.
As he finished his master's degree and got a job, he forgot about the investment. However, when the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed in 2013, Koch remembered about them. Since Bitcoins were stored in digital wallets, for the next whole day, Koch frantically searched for the password to his wallet.
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Once he gained access, he realized that the wallet had 5,000 bitcoins worth 5 million Norwegian Krone, which was worth about $850,000 at the time, per BBC. Koch decided to cash in one-fifth of his Bitcoins and bought a nice apartment in Tøyen, which is regarded as one of the wealthier areas of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
However, if Koch had held on to all of his 5,000 Bitcoins till 2024, he would have made much more. After overcoming a slew of regulatory hurdles, Bitcoin's price climbed quickly to breach $60,000, setting a high of $69,210 in March. It continued setting records as it reached an all-time high of $73,737. This means, that Koch's investment during the peak period would have been worth over $368 million.
Anyway, Koch told NRK that the money was deposited into his account in portions of 50,000 kroner each day. So he woke up every morning and logged into his account to see it growing.
He shared that at the time, his roommate got suspicious and questioned if he was spending fake money. He said she initially didn't like him spending money on technological gimmicks, but after he made a fortune on Bitcoin, he was allowed to spend money on the things he wanted.
In a similar case, a man from Newport, UK sought to dig up a landfill after accidentally throwing a hard drive containing 7,500 Bitcoin. James Howells has been in a legal battle to dig up a section of his local landfill to find the disk that would be worth over $482.1 million today.
The most volatile asset
Among all assets, Bitcoin has had one of the most volatile trading histories. The prized cryptocurrency has undergone several ups and downs ever since its creation. It was introduced at a price of zero in 2010, to facilitate everyday transactions. Its price jumped to $0.10 and reached $0.30 by the end of 2010.
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After an uneventful year, Bitcoin began trading at $100 and then jumped to $200 in a few months. By then, investors started picking up the cryptocurrency to store value and hedge against inflation and market uncertainty.
It was around this time that the media picked up on the asset and by the end of 2013, it began trading at $1,000. Thus, it offered a perfect opportunity for Koch to cash in on his small investment.
