Bitcoin Forum

I hope this proves to be an inspiring story for all the newbies here. This lad has done some amazing job. Let's appreciate and learn. The purpose of sharing this story was to learn that when to invest and how to invest basically. Just learn about the prices first and then invest. It's okay if you loose be patient and try again. Best of luck.

In May 2017, a college student based in the US invested $5,000 in Ethereum (ETH), when the digital asset was worth around $50.

Within merely months, the price of ETH skyrocketed from $50 to $1,281 at its peak, as the cryptocurrency market achieved a valuation of $800 billion.

With a base return of 25-fold, having made over $125,000 in ETH, the individual invested in a few digital assets and initial coin offering (ICO) projects, and, by the end of December, the portfolio of the investor reached $880,000.

“I gambled in more than a few bad ICOs to start 2018, had some money in coins that absolutely plummeted with no chance of recovering, etc. Today my portfolio sits at $125k, a far cry from my $880k. My estimated tax liability for 2017 is about $400,000,” the student said.

At the crypto market’s peak, the student recorded a net profit of $875,000 with an investment of $5,000.

Here's the full story
https://www.ccn.com/tax-nightmare-student-invested-5k-in-ethereum-now-owes-400k-in-taxes/amp/

Either you have misread the story, or I have (the linked article is not too brilliant explaining the case properly, and I’m not familiar with US Tax specifics on crypto). What I got from the story is that the lad made a handsome amount, but since then his investment has gone south and leaves him a 125k$ portfolio but also a 400k$ tax dept (base on peak value I guess). Honestly, I interpret that the result is that the kid is really at loss.

It kind of looks anything but inspiring … (but I may have got the wrong end of the stick here).

I am with you DdmrDdmr. I am not sure if Ridaa didnt read the text carefully or I didnt get the sarcastic tone because this story is far away from a success story.

I ve read a lot of such posts at eg. Reddit where users initially earned a lot of money in the bull market, gambled and lost a lot of money in the altcoin frenzy in late 2017 and now have tax depts.

You could come the story as inspiring (half of it is)
I would view it as a lesson that beginners and professionals alike should learn from.
Money in cryptocurrency is not truly yours until you convert it to fiat.

Also if we consider his initial investment of $5000, if that was more than he could afford to spare at the time, then he was wrong to gamble with it.

The title should be changed to misfortune as a result of greed really there is actually nothing inspire in that story. It makes me wonder fit you even read it youself @OP.
The major aim and idea of the article is about taxation pls reread it again https://www.ccn.com/tax-nightmare-student-invested-5k-in-ethereum-now-owes-400k-in-taxes/amp/

What do you expect? He is just a kid, what's inspiring about this story though is that you can really made a lot of money in cryptoverse, but you have to be very very careful of your investments as well because it can go on either direction as well. At least he is not as dumb as this Indian Teenager Threatens to Blow Up Miami Airport over Alleged Bitcoin Scam (https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/11/05/indian-teenager-threatens-to-blow-up-miami-airport-over-alleged-bitcoin-scam/). ;D

"gambled". That's the keyword right there. While him investing in ETH early on might be a very smart move(but still quite a gamble), the gambling in ICOs is definitely not; and I really don't see what's inspiring about that. It's like being inspired by a person who won a lot of money due to being lucky with a slot machine in Las Vegas.

I think the OP mistook what he actually intended to portray this post as... It's definitely not inspiring but it's somewhat pedagogic/tutoring..
 It teaches through a lesson put forward,just as the old saying goes,experience is the best teacher,so I think the OP wants readers to learn from the aforementioned mistake

I was so inspired by the title of the post but on taking a look at the content in the post and also the link I was wondering what so inspiring here may be the OP has another perspective he is viewing from and would be better to elaborate

Wow, that's a lucky guy.
I'm also planning to invest in some ICO, I have a budget of $ 500, do you think all the money to invest?