Back in 2011, when Adele’s Rolling in the Deep dominated radio and Netflix still mailed DVDs, a handful of gamers and Reddit night-owls were quietly hoarding something called Bitcoin. It sounded more like cheat-code gold than real money. But—as the blockchain now reminds us—it was very real, and a few gutsy believers have the screenshots to prove it.
Here’s What Actually Happened
Let’s pull up the block explorers and walk through three very different rabbit holes.
1. Erik Finman: The High-Schooler Who Turned Detention into 401(k)
Finman’s origin story feels almost scripted. In May 2011, 12-year-old Erik took a $1,000 gift from his grandmother—cash most teenagers would’ve burned on video games—and piled it into Bitcoin at roughly $10.50 per coin. By late 2013, BTC flirted with $1,200 on Mt. Gox. His stash—a hair under 100 BTC according to on-chain sleuth @WhaleMap—ballooned to six figures overnight. When he cashed out around $100,000, he famously told his parents he wasn’t going to college. They countered: “Fine, but you’d better be a millionaire by 18.” No pressure, right?
The data shows he met that goal with room to spare. Finman’s public wallet (address ending ...9u5D) moved 403 BTC on July 14, 2017, the day Bitcoin broke $2,300 and headlines screamed “bubble.” If he held till the winter mania at $19,600, that single transfer alone was worth nearly $8 million.
“School is a waste of time if you’ve mastered proof-of-work before algebra.” — Finman on a 2017 Reddit AMA
I’m not entirely sure skipping college is optimal for everyone, but the chain doesn’t lie—Finman rode pure exponential growth.
2. Kristoffer Koch: The Forgotten Laptop that Paid for a Condo
Before Dogecoin memes or BAYC flexes, there was Norwegian grad student Kristoffer Koch. In 2009, while researching encryption at the University of Oslo, Koch spent 150 Norwegian kroner (≈ $27) on 5,000 BTC, basically pocket change. Then he did what most grad students do: got distracted, wrote a thesis, and forgot the password.
Fast-forward to April 2013. A Bloomberg ticker flashed “BTC > $120.” Koch dug through old email backups, found the key, and—after three nerve-racking password guesses—unlocked a wallet worth roughly $600,000. By year-end, he sold 1,000 BTC to buy a 2-bedroom apartment in Oslo’s Grünerløkka district. StreetEasy comps peg that condo at ~8 million NOK today (≈ $760k).
The kicker? Koch still holds an estimated 4,000 BTC. At today’s $30,750 spot price (yeah, it’s been choppy, thank you Fed), that’s north of $120 million. If you ever needed motivation to back up your seed phrase, there it is.
3. Glauber Contessoto: The “Dogecoin Millionaire” Who HODLed Through 90% Drawdowns
Enter 2021’s bull run, turbo-charged by TikTok and Elon Musk’s midnight meme bombs. Glauber Contessoto, a 33-year-old music industry worker, read a Reddit thread on Jan 28, 2021—the day GameStop peaked—and decided Dogecoin was next. He YOLO’d $250k (borrowed on Robinhood margin, no less) into DOGE at an average of $0.045.
We all remember what happened: April 20 “Doge Day” sent the coin to $0.42, then May 8 Musk’s SNL appearance catapulted it to $0.73. Glauber’s Robinhood snapshot showed $2,059,405.73. He changed his Twitter handle to @ProTheDoge, did the press circuit, refused to sell a single token. But by June, DOGE retraced to $0.20, wiping 70% of his net worth. CNBC asked if he regretted it. “Nah, diamond hands,” he shrugged.
Today DOGE trades at $0.065. Glauber’s stack—still ~4 million coins—hovers around $260k. Painful? Sure. But he’s not out. He joined the Dogecoin Foundation as an advisor and is working on a Layer-2 micropayments wallet with the MyDoge team. That’s conviction, or stubbornness—sometimes I can’t tell.
So Why Did They Make It When Most Didn’t?
Patterns emerge when you zoom out on Glassnode charts:
- Time in the market beats timing the market. Finman and Koch sat through brutal 80% drawdowns (2014, 2018) yet remained net positive.
- Asymmetric bets change lives. All three risked amounts that seemed “small-ish” relative to expected upside—$1k, $27, $250k (okay, that last one is spicy).
- Storytelling matters. Each became a meme in their own right, attracting more capital and opportunities—Finman launched an ed-tech startup, Glauber sells merch, Koch gets documentary offers.
But I’m still puzzled: is it luck, foresight, or just survivorship bias? Probably all three. For every Finman, there’s a Mt. Gox creditor still waiting on payouts.
Where the On-Chain Data Gets Interesting
Messari’s Real Volume metric shows that during Finman’s July 2017 wallet move (403 BTC), aggregate spot volume on Bitstamp hit $1.9 billion—a weekly record at the time. In contrast, DOGE’s May 2021 blow-off saw a staggering $88 billion in 24-hour volume, eclipsing ETH.
These macro spikes often coincide with mainstream coverage. Google Trends confirms: worldwide “buy Dogecoin” searches peaked the same week NBC aired Contessoto’s story. It’s almost like the algorithm front-runs retail sentiment.
And yes, I checked: Koch’s original 2009 transaction sits in block 15,552. Gas fee? Essentially zero. Try telling that to a newbie paying 35 gwei on Uniswap today.
Wait, Should You Go All-In on the Next Meme Coin?
I can’t give financial advice—and frankly, I don’t know the next 100x. But history whispers a few guidelines:
- Start small, think long. Erik’s $1k became millions because he let compounding work for years.
- Diversify your catalysts. Bitcoin had Lindy effect; Dogecoin had Elon tweets. Understand what drives narrative before aping.
- Secure your keys. Imagine Koch never found that password—different article entirely.
The uncomfortable truth? You might hold through a 90% drawdown before seeing a 10x. Your stomach has to survive what your spreadsheet predicts.
Why This Matters for Your Portfolio
We’re entering a weird macro crosswind—rate hikes, ETF speculation, Layer-2 wars. Yet the chain keeps settling blocks every ten minutes. Early adopters remind us that seismic profits often sprout from times of boredom and disbelief, not euphoria. If the next cycle mirrors prior halving arcs, we’re roughly 230 days from Bitcoin’s supply shock. Historically, that’s when fortunes shift.
I admit I’m nervous. Regulatory fog in the U.S. isn’t clearing, and ETH’s gas fees still sting. But I also can’t ignore the data: wallet addresses holding >1 BTC just hit an all-time high (1.015 million), per Glassnode. Someone’s accumulating.
One Last Thing Before You Close the Tab
If there’s a dusty USB drive in your drawer, maybe—just maybe—give it another look. Could be nothing, could be your Oslo condo. And if you’re tinkering with the next memecoin on Base, screenshot everything. Ten years from now, some nosy writer like me will be scrolling Etherscan, piecing together your origin story.
Call to action? Sure. Study the data, respect the risk, and—when conviction strikes—place a bet small enough to sleep at night but big enough to matter if you’re right. Then forget about it and go live a life worth more than your portfolio tracker.
