How a £5,000 Bitcoin Bet in 2011 Turned Into an Unimaginable Fortune After 14 Years

Imagine if you could travel back to 2011 and slap yourself silly with a giant “Invest in Bitcoin!” sign—would you? Trust me, that’s the kind of advice that makes time travelers drool and financial gurus weep. Back then, Bitcoin was just this quirky little technological gimmick, about as believable as a unicorn at a tech conference. People tossed money in, half-hopeful, half-skeptical, figuring it was just a fad that’d fizzle out like the latest viral dance craze. But surprise, surprise! Those coins didn’t just hang around—they skyrocketed, turning pizza purchases into millionaire moments and turning modest investments into billion-dollar jackpots. One lucky soul bought 10,000 Bitcoin for a measly $7,805—chump change now worth over a billion. Makes you wonder how many of us would’ve cashed out early or kept on holding, biting our nails like it’s the final season of a suspense thriller. Curious about this wild ride from two pizzas to treasure troves? LEARN MORE

Going back to about 2011 and telling yourself to invest in Bitcoin has got to be one of the more popular options should you ever be granted the powers of time travel.

Back in the early days of Bitcoin it looked like just another technological wheeze that certainly wasn’t going to supplant actual currency, though some people put their money into it hoping that it might come good some day.

However, the price did end up rising and it eventually became something altogether more valuable, particularly for those early investors.

In 2010, a man who’d bought 10,000 Bitcoin traded them for two pizzas, making him the first person to complete a transaction by using the cryptocurrency as money.

Back then, the value of his Bitcoin was about £25, but in the following years the value would increase significantly and one person is reaping the rewards from being an early investor.

One person who bought 10,000 Bitcoin in 2011 paid $7,805 (about £5000) for them, buying their coins at 78 cents each.

Reddit)

Holding onto them for 14 entire years, the price of the individual coins is now over $100,000 (£73,000) each which means they’ve massively increased in value and this haul is worth more than a billion dollars.

Blimey.

Naturally, Reddit has spotted this and the reaction is a mixture of congratulation, admiration and envy.

Plenty of folks pointed out how most people would have cashed out long before now back when the price was much lower but still substantially more than this mysterious trader had paid for it.

These Bitcoin seem to have been purchased in April 2011, back when the price was below a dollar soon gained in value, as by June 2011 they were worth over $10.

That few grand is worth a whole lot more now (ROMAIN COSTASECA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

By the end of the same year the price had plummeted to around half that, but holding onto them proved to be the right decision as two years on from the purchase, the value of each coin had risen to over $100.

There have been some ups and downs in the price and this mystery buyer could have sold up for massive profits at any point, but in the past five years the price of a Bitcoin has risen from around $10,000 to over $100,000.

It’s little wonder that the people who invested early and now can’t access their fortune have been tearing their hair out over their loss.

One bloke in Wales who had about £600 million of cryptocurrency on his hard drive lost it all after it was thrown away during a clear-out and he’s unsuccessfully been trying to get his local council to let him dig up their landfill site searching for it.