Bitcoin
12-year-old boy became a millionaire after being one of the first to invest in Bitcoin
Published at 17:31, 15 June 2024 GMT+1
Erik Finman decided to invest in Bitcoin at age 12 after striking a deal with his parents in an attempt to avoid ‘going back to school’
A 12-year-old boy decided to invest in Bitcoin and ended up becoming a millionaire.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? However, for Erik Finman, he certainly doesn’t need to look back with any kind of regret after investing in Bitcoin at age 12 and becoming a millionaire.
At age 12, many of us spent our money on Pokémon cards or candy at the corner store, but not Erik Finman.
In 2011, instead of wasting his money, Erik decided to invest his money money where was his mouth after cutting a deal with his country that he would prove that he could make a fortune outside the traditional Education in exchange for being able to stop studying a university degree.
But how would Erik build so much wealth? Well, luckily for the 12-year-old, Bitcoin had just been launched in 2009 and the data was made available the following year, so after receiving $1,245 from his grandmother, Erik decided to invest in cryptocurrency.
At the time Erik invested, it was trading at around $12 – and that netted him around 103 BTC.
While I’m sure most kids that age would probably be lost to know how he managed to invest that money in a new emerging online currency phenomenon, it was certainly worth it.
In December 2017 – when Erik was just 18 – Bitcoin peaked at around $20,000 and his initial investment of $1,245 grew to a staggering $2.07 million. Not bad, huh?
Reflecting on his decision, which paid off as an adult, Erik said, “People didn’t really understand what I was trying to do.”
He counted the Business of Business: “I really didn’t like high school. People didn’t really get what I was trying to do, they didn’t get what I was looking for or what I was dreaming of.
“A teacher told me, yes, to give up, work on McDonalds since I will never be anything else in life.
“I dropped out of high school and made a bet with my parents: If I make a million dollars by age 18, I won’t need to go back to school or college.”
And Erik didn’t just stop after earning his first million, increasing the amount of Bitcoins he had to 341 – with an estimated value of over $4.8 million as of mid-2020.
However, Erik, now 25, is not too happy with his claim to fame and insisted that he is “desperate to get out of crypto” and that he was “tired of being the Bitcoin person”, so recently he has been investing his finances on aircraft he said he made ‘good money’.
Whatever makes you happy, champ. More power to you.
Featured image credit: YouTube/TEDx Talks/Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Topics: Money, US News, Education, Paternity, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency