Antalya, Turkey – December 26, 2021: Close up of hands holding a bitcoin coin and US dollar banknotes in front of a screen showing trading charts in the background
In 2009, Bitcoin was still largely unknown as Satoshi Nakamoto had only published the Bitcoin white paper in October 2008 and crypto enthusiasts were still pondering how to mine and trade these new digital coins.
However, some early adopters have been fortunate to jump into the innovation very early on. An example of this was a person who mined 150 BTC when it was only worth $0.13. This was back when mining wasn’t that difficult and you could mine BTC on an old, broken computer.
HODLing Bitcoin for over a decade
Bitcoin was virtually worthless in its early days. The first adopters mostly mined BTC for fun, only a few of them accepted it as a payment method. However, Bitcoin’s growth over the years led to the emergence of a new industry that experienced massive spurts of growth in the decade that followed.
For the owner of this review, his patience and belief in Bitcoin paid off after more than a decade of HODLing. On-chain data shows that the total value of the 150 BTC mined was only $19.50.
However, the owner of that 150 BTC kept it for over a decade before finally deciding to cash it out. Finally, 13 years later, they sold them for a whopping $6.5 million in 2022 and $43,502 per coin, a price increase of 5 billion percent.
Miner sells 150 BTC after 13 years | Source: Ki Young Ju on X
Miner sells 150 BTC after 13 years | Source: Ki Young Ju on XInterestingly, they sold their coins at a time when Bitcoin had plummeted from its all-time high of $68,789 in November 2021. That means if they had sold at that point, they would have made around $10 million for holding 150 BTC for 13 years.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is currently trading at $29,468, about 30% below the price the holder sold. So, had they held until now, their holdings would have fallen to $4.5 million by now.
Early adopters of BTC
It is well known that early adopters reap the greatest profits from the crypto boom. This 5 billion percent return from 150 BTC adds to a growing list of success stories of early investing and long-term holding.
However, some of these early adopters have their assets frozen forever. Some other miners completely forgot about their early bitcoin wallets and only rediscovered them years later, while some are lost forever.
According to IntoTheBlock29% of the total bitcoin supply has not been moved in over five years. Most of these are from first-time users and are believed to be lost forever.
As the bitcoin and crypto industry continues to evolve, it awaits the approval or disapproval of spot bitcoin ETF filings by investment firms from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which many expect will lead to next bull run.
BTC price trading in the mid-$29,000 range | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
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