Bitcoin Forum

Sold 160 bitcoins at $0.003 per bitcoin, the lowest price in bitcoin history. The incident took place 13 years ago today i.e. on 19 February 2010. Someone sold 160 bitcoins for just 48 cents at the lowest price.

Now my question is what did the man do with only 48 cents.

https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1627626818390859776?s=19 (https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1627626818390859776?s=19)

Today bitcoin price $23100 at my post time
13 years ago bitcoin lowest price $0.003
Now price pumped=23100/0.003=7700000=7.7M times than 2010

He probably wasn't doing anything with 48 cents, but when you are holding something you don't believe in, it becomes fun to toy with it. I believe he just traded it for that low amount to get rid of it or to make a transaction with it and see how it works. 
He probably will be on his deepest regret right from the time when the bitcoin price started to sparkle and shock all unbelievers. 
We all wished we were opportune to have the idea of bitcoin 10 years ago, but even if most of us had that opportunity, we would have probably sold out before the price pump. It was just a few people back then who actually believed in Bitcoin, a currency you can't physically see. It was hard to convince someone back in those days, but it's easier now because people have seen the proof.I don't blame those who have made such huge mistake in the past thou. 

To answer what did the man do with 48 cents? He probably gave it to 50 cent to help him to become a successful rapper and went on his own way of becoming bitcointalk admin. Lol.

we cannot determine potential of any project at there initial stage that it will successful or not ,

if you were at that place you would also sold that bitcoins to save your 48cents to buy some snacks,

maybe the owner will poor enough to sold for 48cents , and today if he is alive than , how regretful he is.

In 2010 a lot of people didn't know that bitcoin was going to explode like it is now maybe they thought it was like a shit coin back then, and maybe also he used to try to sell coins because basically bitcoin is very low so it's normal I think selling 160 BTC for a few cents.
If he saw the potential of bitcoin now of course there would be some regrets about why he wasn't on hold but that was all no one knew back then that bitcoin would reach as high as $69k ATH in 2021.

Laszlo bought a Pizza with a bigger 10k Bitcoin so I thought at the time it was very reasonable to sell very cheaply.

Back then people weren't really thinking of bitcoin of getting that big in value. To them bitcoin is merely another form of payment they can use primarily online. Just take that guy who bought a box of pizza using his bitcoins, the amount of which would've made him affluent many times over already. He doesn't regret, at least that's what he says, because you won't really suspect bitcoin of becoming a great store of value when its main directive is to act as a form of seamless long-distance payment channel.

Sure, to look back at your 48 cents becoming millions now may make you regret a few life choices but then again, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world. You can always invest in bitcoin again and with the way things are holding up you can easily expect profits to come.

Well, ten years from now, someone might say, "Hey! Check it out, this idiot sold 0.1 BTC back in 2023 for only $2,000 and some change! Can you believe Bitcoin was worth only $23k back then?"  ;D

you have to know that 13 years ago Bitcoin was new, it was a concept, viewed as an
experiment, Thousands and thousands of Bitcoin were given away FREE in airdrops
to help promote it so I wouldnt read anything into the sale of 160 Bitcoin. It was what it was
and at a different time.

People are still selling Bitcoin today, will we look back in 13 years from now when Bitcoin
is $1,000,000 and question the actions of today?

Answering this question is difficult, because this same question would come back to us later ten years. Bitcoin wasn't truly developed to make you wealthy, though. It had quite different intentions. When Bitcoin's last bull reached $70K, ten years ago no one could have predicted it. After that, it fell back below 20K. But, a lot of folks are still waiting to dump more. As a result, everyone has distinct ideas. On the other hand, there is someone purchasing and someone else selling. I can state that the seller didn't think the price would increase at this rate. He was however not a stupid, otherwise he would not have purchased Bitcoin. Nobody knows if he had accumulated more after selling. Perhaps he was trading himself.

Time and value determines, by then, things were not as they were today, the value of it worth wasn't as high as when it was 2010 and beyond even till present, the same thing will also be applica if someone buys now and later after some years others discover if they had been holding or what they would have use the money for when they buy or sell at that rate, in this man's case, we cannot be sure what he did with it buy would have learnt the reason why he made that decision.


Should we also assume in the next round of another 13 years that bitcoin could have been at about $500k or more with what we can perceived from the past indications on bitcoin price.

13 years ago and we are talking about it. He said that BTC was substantially overpriced at $0.05 so he does have the chance to sell at $0.05 each.

I'm not sure either what he is doing with $0.48. It's easier to think there weren't many people in the market buying and selling during that time. Probably just testing around, I bet he got more than 10K BTC around that time and he just sold 160BTC, he must have considered it dust 13 years ago.

well, you can't always be looking at the past when it comes to investment, I mean that we shouldn't think like this: "why didn't I invest in thing x in the past? today I would have profited a lot " this is a dangerous thought, until the 10 years ago in my country, with just 1$ I could buy a lot of things to eat, but today that is no longer possible, everything is expensive, but I don't think about the past that way. this guy who sold bitcoin for this very low price should not be tormenting himself, he should forget about it and move on, he can buy now and sell in 3 years with a profit, bitcoin is here for long years so he can buy on the day and time you want and do hodl and get profit

edit:

13 years ago Theymos sold 160btc at $0.003 per 1, lowest price ever recorded (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441173.0)

 :o

Yeah after he bought the snacks he realized his mistake and applied for administration position in a forum to suffer for the next 13 years of his life from the hands of people like you and me.
He is very well and alive though, we all are posting on his forum. And I'm sure he was never poor and never will be God willing.

13 years ago if he had taken bitcoin predictions so seriously he would never have sold 160 bitcoins for only 48 cents. He made history by selling 160 BTC for 48 cents 13 years ago at the lowest price in Bitcoin history.

13 years ago bitcoin lowest price was $0.003 /BTC
13 years later now bitcoin current price $23000/BTC
Now he gets=160×$23000= $3680000

I think he wasn't interested in fiat money per se, but he wanted to show that bitcoin has a real use and that bitcoins can really be exchanged for fiat money. In 2010 bitcoin was still quite new and every trade was certainly something special. No matter how much those bitcoins brought him in fiat money. Let's face it, what could he have done with the 48 cents? As good as nothing. So my opinion is that it was more about the symbolism in this trade. Bitcoin is where it is today thanks to pioneers like him.  ;)

probably nothing because what exactly can you do with 48 cents even if it is in 2013? the guy was probably just curious about bitcoin and the technology and doesn't really think of making much money out of it(at least at the time). what I am curious about is if that person ever decided to buy bitcoin or mine and hodl.

There are many things that he could have acquired with 48 cents, but I think his point must have been to execute a bitcoin sale transaction for curiosity or educational purposes, to see how it works on every stages of the process. Thinking about it right now it looks absurd, but on that time it should have looked a pretty basic, cheap and casual experiment.

It is the essence of bitcoin before, now and perhaps always, to make a transaction.

 The amount involved at any time is irrelevant what is important is the transaction.

 You cannot limit yourself to that very poor thought of the amount involved, even today, perhaps the same comparisons will be made in 100 years.

He's just wrong from doing so at the present simply because the market price is way higher than before. But think of the situation on that exact year when he sold it; he won't be wrong. Many people are quite laughing or shocked of what he did. Same thing goes with the man who traded his bitcoin holdings for pizza. Idea is; no one would expect the market price would be as high as with the present or previous ATH especially if we would be talking about years of progress. Same thing goes with investing at this point to a new project token. If it won't show progress, would you be still holding it for a decade or more? Some probably would, but that is due to the idea that we've seen its possibility to be profitable from the tokens before. But if not, for sure you'd hesitate.

Now I want to ask why everyone sold doge or other coins at so low prices.
Yes, I know doge is a meme coin and it will not gain much time the buying price was also low, so you sold the coins at such a low price.

!2 years ago how many of the people knew the potential of bitcoin and who thought that bitcoin will even go to 100$. The person who sold bitcoin maybe one of those who was not lucky to hold the coins unintentionally or intentionally. 

Wow!  that's a Crazy.  if only he wants to hold those coins for 7 years of course he will get 160x5000 = $ 80,000 !!  A thousand times what he had earned!  I can't imagine if I was in his position.  I don't have words to describe how I feel if I do that and I'm in this year.  That's crazy man.  But I'm sure he also has his reasons for doing that.  Just like people who have sold their coins and then some time later the price has increased tens or even hundreds of times than when he sold it.

Accurate calculation, but did you not count on the last ATH price reached, 160BTC x $68,789 = $11,006,240. amazing for the price and would make him a rich man selling it now. But if we have to look back, the decision to sell at $ 0.003 at that time may have been a good decision in his opinion, he may have been satisfied with it and become a great history. I have in the past even sold tens of Bitcoins for under $3000 and I have never felt disappointed because that is part of our journey while dealing with bitcoins. Compared to losing bitcoins due to careless actions such as throwing away hard drives containing thousands of bitcoins, but have not been found until now. it will hurt even more because it will give a lot of hope that will never come true, when it is gone then only numbers can be seen without being able to do anything.

Well to me the answer to this is "You don't expect everyone to keep holding".
Yes this is true, as then people never believed on the vision of bitcoin what it would yield today, as a matter of fact even if it was you it would have been the same. Comparing 13 years ago nobody believe it would be a precious gem.
I think I have came across some post where some wasted $127m worth in btc on his harddisk where it was dump at packing site and many research have been carried out to recover those hardware or harddisk thereabouts but couldn't have any access to it again.
I will find back to post and update here back.

Edit..
Please read full story here (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/12/20/man-lost-127-million-worth-of-bitcoins-and-city-wont-let-him-look.html).

As Doge is merely a meme coin, nobody will ever buy it, in our opinion. Unaware that the price would soon approach $1, my friend recently gave away all of his Doge. And because he has no balance left before the price jumps that much, I know it's a big loss for him. I'm relieved that it won't have an emotional impact because he is concentrating on his objective. He makes a lot of money trading since he is skilled at it.
 
The price of $100 BTC is still low, but at the time, I believed that it was unsafe to invest in BTC because it was at its peak and many holders who had purchased it when it was cheaper, sold it after making significant gains without realizing that the price would rise further. I started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2016 when bitcoin was trading at around $6000. At the time, I had bitcoin, but I sold it because I didn't think it would ever rise above $50k because I was still thinking that it couldn't possibly increase. I'm sad that sold it for such a low price, and I learned that much this time.

Maybe buy some candy.

But, this will also happen to us today, as you know we got about ±0.002 - 0.004 BTC payment each week, and maybe we can use to buy some food or any kind of small goods today. but with that ±0.002 BTC, maybe in the next 13 years, [the logic] is we can buy Cybertruck - Tesla or Lambo when we compare between time, right?

Bro didn't want to loose his $0.50 cos he thought bitcoin will go lower  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
paper-hards of the century.

Maybe the 48 cents were spent and not left. I think it's normal for someone to sell their bitcoins at a very low price in 2010 because many people didn't expect that bitcoin could reach $ 23k and even $ 59k once. But if they could look into the future and see the price of bitcoin at its last ATH price, I bet no one would want to sell bitcoin from the first time they got it to ATH. Bitcoin always surprises many people, especially long-term bitcoin holders, so you also have to be able to hold bitcoin until you reach your highest target price.

I have coins that cost maybe even less, I didn't sell them and now they've just scamed, so it's hard to tell what will happen in the future. I know it's stupid to compare these shitcoins with bitcoin, but we are so smart now, and at the beginning of the journey, many turned off the right path.

I am really curious to hear why do you call the first ever recorded bitcoin sale "incident", instead of praising that move as without those early adopters who were willing to buy/sell bitcoin we probably wouldn't be here today. I mean, what would be the point of bitcoin if people just mined it and never use for anything?

By the way, that person is theymos.

I think that a lot of people who sold their Bitcoin at a lower price at that time might not have known that it might go up to this high level; otherwise, they might have had to wait until now. And for this reason, everyone should do more research before investing, especially in the cryptocurrency sector, to avoid having a major regret later. After ten years, I think a lot of people will still look back with regret because they didn't realize that the price of bitcoin could rise steadily. However, if those that sold Bitcoin in lower price had good purposes why it sold it, it may not be a regret to whosoever. So to my own understanding Bitcoin investment need patients that why is always good to use the money that you will not use in short to invest in Bitcoin, if truly you need the huge profit.

13years ago, that's pretty much a long time to consider and such an early stage for bitcoin. People must have done certain unbelievable trades given by how easy it was to get them coins at that time and with the innovation still coming to light, people have got to try it out, to see how real it could get.

It's something to be curious though as to, what would have been the motive for setting the target at 48 cent. Like, what would he or she have wanted 48 cents for. I just can't imagine it but, what's playing in my head now is that, he possibly would have wanted it to balance up a purchase or service.
Looking forward to today, its such a waste!

I don’t understand the point on asking what people did on the time that Bitcoin is still new. There’s no certainty back then and obviously most of the people will do the same like we are doing on shitcoins right now that we sell on low price. He doesn’t have crystal ball to predict the future and also there’s no guarantee that didn’t buy back few years when Bitcoin a move. That kind of Bitcoin amount back then is almost nothing and he sells that as if nothing too.

Let’s thank them because they start Bitcoin trading by selling Bitcoin for small amount to create a exchange flow.

Oh wow!
Really? Was it theymos? Please refer to any thread or source where I can find more information. I am a bit curious about it.


I agree with you. It looks like an incident right now, but we wouldn't be here without those moves. Someone has to do the transaction to buy/sell goods. I don't know if this one was the first-ever transaction. But, indeed, this one lets everyone know that it has value and you can also sell it. We don't know how long bitcoin will be there and how much it will be worth after a few decades.

Imagine you spend a whole Bitcoin on a gambling website, and you lose it. After a few decades, you are telling the story to your grandson. Bitcoin is worth a million or more at that time, and he will think the same. He will say you made mistakes by gambling the Bitcoin, and it will also look like an incident.

There's a high chance that those few cents were flipped into hundreds of thousands and the buyer never looked back. Or sometimes, people tend to forget that they have some bitcoins lying around and ended up losing all the stash because they can no longer remember it. Whatever the case is, the most probable answer is that they no longer have that in possession. At least they experienced buying every bitcoin that they own at an extremely cheap price, something that not everyone can brag about :D

Yep, theymos admitted it some time ago in reddit AMA (which is also very interesting btw I suggest you read it) and then like a week ago someone twitted about it as it was 13 years anniversary of that sale which started all this.
There was another thread opened yesterday on the same topic so there you might find more info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441173.msg61815602#msg61815602

he may had bought other more bitcoins when, he may saw that bitcoin pump to 1 cent , but this time he may had bought more than 160BTC or more than worth 48cents.

if he was lucky enough than may he is now a millionaire .

There was no real reason to buy more back then though,
it was just a matter of letting your CPU crunch some numbers in the background for a couple of hours to mine a bunch of blocks worth 50btc each.

Even my HP Omnibook with a Pentium-III 1000 (which was already quite old at that time) mined a few blocks a day in 2010.
I guess the first RaspberryPi could have done the job too, but that didn't even exist until 2012 (i think?).

It's not like bitcoin was some kind of investment-asset like it is today, more of a toy for us nerds to play around with.
And we did.
And it worked.
And it still does, isn't that great?

I think he was just a newbie. Who bought at high and when the price went downhill, he got panicked and sold all his holdings. And if you compare that price point in that past with today's price, then that won't work. This is just another story, same as pizza day. You never know the future, and this is common mistakes among newbies. I know a story of my friend who bought BNB at the rate of $7 and gave it away to some people when the price went down. If you calculate that to it's ATH, it will almost $2k now.
It's just fate IMO.