Man who bought Bitcoin for 20 cents made $95,268,880 mistake after wiping computer
A man who accidentally wiped hundreds of Bitcoins from his computer could've cashed in an eye-watering amount from his investment today.
We've already heard of the student who forgot about his $27 crypto investment that is now worth millions.
And then you have the people who lost their life savings on Hawk Tuah Girl's memecoin. So, as it goes, not all crypto ventures end up prosperous.
While the crypto market is notoriously volatile, that never deterred Jered Kenna, one of the earliest Bitcoin millionaires.
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The former Marine bought his first batch of the cryptocurrency, when one coin was just 20 cents.
Yes, you read that right. Now, one Bitcoin is worth a whopping $119,086.10, at the time of writing, as per Google Finance.
Does anyone have a time machine?
Anyway, Kenna invested $1,000 in 5,000 coins back in 2010.
And as the currency's value soared, he was catapulted to millionaire status, all while still in his mid-20s.
He went on to launch one of the US' first crypto exchanges, Tradehill, in 2011. At its peak, it handled around 20 percent of global Bitcoin trades.
But a mistake in Kenna's early days could've made him even richer.
He had accidentally wiped some 800 Bitcoin from his computer not all too long after he'd made his first investment in 2010.
Worth only $160 at the time, Kenna wasn't exactly upset, as Business Week reported; he had 'plenty more'.
Yet today, those gone-forever Bitcoins are worth a life-changing $95,268,880.
That's got to hurt, at least a little bit, right?
That wallet slip-up isn't the only trouble Kenna has faced, though. In 2016, he was the target of a cruel hack which saw him lose millions of dollars.
He told Financial Post how a hacker purchased a phone in his name, changed his email passwords and then stole millions from him across more than 60 accounts.
“The hack took my entire life,” he told the publication, adding he had to go to hospital and remains on blood-pressure medication since the incident.
Kenna was due to relaunch a crypto exchange platform at the time; TradeHill has been shuttered in 2012 due to licencing issues.
He's since stepped out of the crypto world, instead setting up what he says is the largest independent craft brewer in Colombia.
He's also built out a co-living tech space in San Francisco called 20Mission.
As of 2019, Kenna says he only holds some XRP, a stash of a lesser-known altcoin, and half a Bitcoin - the latter alone now worth nearly $60,000.
Topics: Mental Health, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Money
Ellie Kemp