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This high school dropout who invested in bitcoin at $12 is now a millionaire at 18

• Erik Finman began investing in bitcoin in 2011, when it was just $12 per token
• Through selling companies and other investments, he now has 403 bitcoins — worth more than $1 million

This high-school dropout who invested in bitcoin at $12 is now a millionaire at 18
This high-school dropout who invested in bitcoin at $12 is now a millionaire at 18 
5 Hours Ago | 00:39

Erik Finman made a bet with his parents that if he turned 18 and was a millionaire, they wouldn't force him to go to college. Thanks to his savvy investments in bitcoin and the current all-time high valuation, he won't have to get his degree.

"I can proudly say I made it, and I'm not going to college," Finman said.

He currently owns 403 bitcoins, which at the current $2,700 a coin puts his bitcoin value at $1.09 million. He also has smaller investments in other cryptocurrencies, including litecoin and ethereum.

Bitcoin is very volatile, and the value could decline rapidly. A technical analyst told CNBC he believes bitcoin will only go up to $2,800 before the value recedes, while others think it may reach $100,000 in a decade.

Finman thinks its best days are still ahead. "Personally I think bitcoin is going to be worth a couple hundred thousand to a million dollars a coin," he said.

Bitcoin and the blockchain technology it is built on allow people to cut out the middleman, Finman explained. For example, an open source blockchain ride-share platform would allow users to power the service on their phones using peer-to-peer technology without a central hub. It would allow the drivers to get more money by cutting overhead costs, he added. It could also create the next evolution of the internet, one which wouldn't be reliant on servers.
The first time, he turned $1,000 into $100,000

Finman began investing in bitcoin in May 2011 at the age of 12, thanks to a $1,000 gift from his grandmother and a tip from his brother Scott.

Though he's close with his family — which he calls the "Elon Musk version of the Kardashians" — growing up in "small town" Idaho outside of Coeur d'Alene wasn't easy. Finman was especially frustrated with his high school teachers, and begged his parents to let him drop out at 15.

"(High school) was pretty low quality," he said. "I had these teachers that were all kind of negative. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald's because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part."

Surprisingly, his parents — who met pursuing their Ph.D.s at Stanford — agreed. Finman sold his first bitcoin investments at the end of 2013, when they were valued at $1,200 a piece.

With the $100,000 Finman launched an online education company called Botangle in early 2014 that would allow frustrated students like him to find teachers over video chat. He also used the funds to move to Silicon Valley, did some fun things like meet Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and traveled.

"I really liked Colombia," he said. "It was fun, but a little sketchy. Some interesting stuff happened. I was held up at gunpoint there, which is pretty scary, but I have this emergency button I programmed in Android that puts you on speaker but turns off audio automatically and dials [a local emergency number]."

"Maybe I'll turn that into an app," he added. "It's handy."

It was hard getting people to take a 15-year-old tech entrepreneur seriously, Finman admitted. He recalled being called in to interview with a "really, really high-up" unnamed Uber executive, who instead of listening to his Botangle pitch discouraged him and told him he would never win the bet with his parents.

Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment."

Since then, Finman has been managing his family and his own bitcoin investments. He's also kept busy on other projects, including working with NASA to launch a rocket through the ELaNa project. One thing he won't do is go back to school.

"I never got my GED, and I don't see the value in it," Finman said. "The purpose of that would be to get another education level and get a job. I had to learn through running a business. Instead of writing essays for English class, I had to write emails to important people."

Although the rest of his family has degrees — his brother Scott went to Johns Hopkins at 16 and now has an enterprise software company, while his other brother Ross went to Carnegie Melon at 16 for robotics and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT — he's happy learning about the real world from experience.

"The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn't recommend it," Finman said. "It doesn't work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia."


http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/bitcoin-millionaire-erik-finman-says-going-to-college-isnt-worth-it.html

Wow. Really impressing. He must has really big balls to hold that much bitcoin instead of selling them and put million dollar to in your his bank account. While bitcoin this much volatile can't imagine myself to holding 400 bitcoins.

If you calculate the taxes, fees and market volume to cahs out 400 Bitcoins, then your imagination may be expanded.

This is a very inspiring story of how Bitcoin changed lives of people who believe on the currency at its early stage of introduction. Well, he is lucky that he find out Bitcoin in 2011 and that he invested some money into it. As for the rest of us, we can only wished for a time machine to take us back to that year and maybe bring some cartons of pizza in exchange for some Bitcoin.

Anyway, the point in this story is to do it now. Yes, Bitcoin has already risen astronomically but there is more growth in it that lays ahead so we might as well join the bandwagon now and increase our Bitcoin portfolio. In fact, we can still be considered as pioneers here as there are still so many people who have not yet heard the name Bitcoin.

I personally would have kept this information purely to myself, but I can't do anything other than having respect for anyone that gained a decent bit of wealth through Bitcoin. I must however point out that people have the habit of exaggerating their holdings and actions just to draw attention -- this might fit in that category as well. At least this isn't something with a negative sense to it, which for me is already a good thing. :)

I also wouldn't brag about it and keep it to myself. The less people know how much money you got the better and bitcoin gives you a chance to keep it a secret. If you spill the beans and get robbed, or injured by someone, you got only yourself to blame. Also wealth attracts certain kind of people. He'll now have many "true" friends coming out of the woodwork.

Sounds like a really smart kid. Too smart to keep all his eggs in one basket. He should know better.

Take 300, invest in more conventional, stable and high yield investments and keep the rest where they are now.

Such stories make me sick, where am all those years before discovering bitcoin... Lucky smart kid.
Hope not the same thing happens again with another cryptocurrency  :-\

or maybe with Bitcoin, still lots of potential for higher rises

Really! I would gave up on Bittcoin and get panic in 2013 year when the price fell down. Of course everybody regret that it is not him, but Erik Finman become rich with bitcoin. But in 2011 I was finishing the university and had no idea about bitcoin. So, I kinda not so regret, but admire Erik and his steel balls!

It will always happen. Problem is that you're always too late when you start realizing that if you invested in x coin, you would have gained an insane amount of profit. I am not at all in favor of any altcoin, but look at how Ethereum literally exploded in value for example - this is a perfect reflection of what I mentioned before. Even if you did happen to invest in Ether back in the days, you would have likely already sold your coins at 50-100% profit rates. Never blame yourself for missing an opportunity - just make sure you keep holding every satoshi you have right now! :)

I don't see anything extraordinary in this story-yes one of a kids got lucky,because he stuck to what he believed would bring him profit
he was right-I had more than that but I sold my coins at under 1$,so what now
this akin to buying some commodity and it goes up in price hundreds of times and you are suddenly rich without doing anything
or having any skills in trading or business

That boy is my idol now. When i started to read an article my first thought was "he just got lucky". But then i see that this guy really smart dude. He had made right investment decision, bought even more bitcoin at a low price, because he truly believe in bright future of btc. Real man with big nutts.

I think something is with this kid. He is extra ordinary. How many 12 year old kid can you find doing what he's done? I do think that he's parent something to do with him investment in bitcoin. The article did not mentioned how he find bitcoin, that is why I'm guessing he has above intelligent for a 12 year old.

Maybe there are still a lot of good to feel stories like this out there, but I think they just want to remain anonymous and enjoy the windfall they got from investing into bitcoin early.

Nowadays school/college education is getting increasingly worthless. I know a lot of university graduates, who have been struggling to land a job for the past several years. Anyway, it is better to work for yourselves rather than working for a corporation or an entity. 

Yeah, I witnessed ethereum price at $10, i hesitated and didn't invest on it. I would say that i regret this and now I don't know if i should buy or wait... It could crush or it could be +$1k in 1 year!
For bitcoin, i have a huge confidence.

Don't do it. If you decide to invest right now, it will be a pure gamble as there are zero indications of how Ethereum from its current already insanely overbought levels will perform. Also take in mind that Ethereum is experiencing some severe network difficulties right now. In some cases you just have to accept that you missed the train, and this nicely fits in that category.

So true, Self Employment, Independent contractors, Freelancers, Youtube Vloggers, Airbnb/Uber renters.
There are a lot of career paths that do not follow the traditional path now and allow you to control your own time and success without being a part timer at a low end job. That freedom is nice, some people still like 9-5 causes its a fixed torture period, while the independent path can sometimes end up with 12 hour days on end by your own choice he-he but at least you feel accomplished when your at it.

Also nice job wish I was the same as the $12 coin guy ha-ha got to keep working on it.

Correct. You don't have assurance that you can get a work once you graduated from colleges. And it you get, sometimes the wages are not that good either. And its better to work for yourselves, I haven't seen anyone became rich when working with a corporation. But this kid is cool, though and look at where he is right now, drop out but with millions on his bitcoin account.

I think i will stick with this idea until further price evolution or great news.
Thanks 1Referee  :)

One of the biggest advantages of Bitcoin, there are no age limitations, even porn has it's limits when it comes to age, imagine you're 12 and

Walking into a bank asking the manager that you want to open a bank account, well at some banks they wont even allow you to enter the fucking

Bank if you're a minor, but even if you manage to enter then by the laws of government you wont be able to open any thing unless your parents

Go with you and open a savings account in your behalf. I like this about BTC very much all you need is an address which you could generate one

Online and then if you've got cash you just go and buy some coins face to face then you are your own bank. I'm happy for him and I'm happy for

Myself to get to know about Bitcoin this early, yes it is still early, just wait another 10 years to see what happens.

I heard the exact same story but happened just recently to a student in C.S and decided to drop out because he became a quarter of a millionaire over night..
but with Ethereum instead.

It was on reddit a little while ago.
Lost the link to it though. :-\

Lucky kid but it is not a good example for other 12 year old kids to follow. Now that he has less pressure financially in his life, he should set out to finish school and get a degree. What is a million dollars if you have an empty head resting on your shoulders?

Exactly. If I suddenly become a millionaire, I wouldn't want the entire world to know. That would make me a walking target.

Successful businessmen throughout history have demonstrated that you don't need a college/school degree to be successful. Schools and colleges are meant to churn out mindless drones who can be good obedient employees and Yes-men. School is a waste of time for a boy like him who has tremendous entrepreneurial acumen. He should continue doing what he loves.

Bitcoin is NOT a TOKEN!
Please show proper respect for the giant who is due to reawaken and eat the ETH bubble machine for lunch.