Snot-Nosed Kid’s Insane Boast Evokes Scary Memories of Bitcoin Bubble
Erik Finman is a teenage bitcoin millionaire who believes that any 'hodlers' who aren't similarly wealthy in 10 years only have themselves to blame.| Source: Shutterstock
By CCN.com: Erik Finman declared bitcoin “dead” less than six months ago. Now he says that anyone who buys and holds cryptocurrencies for the next 10 years has a good chance of becoming fabulously wealthy.
The Confidence of Easy Money
He “doubled down” on the statement to MarketWatch , saying that people who haven’t become billionaires using the buy and hold strategy in a decade have only themselves to blame.
“I believe that you could be a millionaire by investing in blockchain and bitcoin. I will double down on that and say that if you’re not a billionaire in the next 10 years, it’s your own fault.”
Finman invested in bitcoin as a young teenager after learning about it from his brother. He famously made a bet with his parents that if he was not a millionaire by age 18, he would go to college. But if he was, they would drop the issue. He’s reportedly worth more than $3.5 million in bitcoin alone. His Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV holdings have some value as well, but he’s never spoken to the “airdropped” coins.
In a moment of clarity and drama-free exposition, Craig Wright recently wrote about people who believe they will become rich without work. Wright said :
“We are at such a point today. We are at the critical stage, but we have moved from stock tips to crypto assets. Now, we find hot dog vendors, the homeless, and the flim-flam men peddling illegal exchanges and talking about money to be made, wealth that cannot be avoided, and riches without work.”
Other than having made a wise (lucky?) decision when he was very young, the whole story of which is questionable, Finman’s opinion of cryptocurrency is entirely unqualified.
The Unqualified Voice of Erik Finman
As to entrepreneurial grit, which might be another reason to take his opinion or advice seriously, the bitcoin millionaire’s Botangle.com appears to be unresponsive at press time. Crunchbase lists the company as “active,” but if this is the first time you’ve ever heard of Finman’s venture, there’s probably a solid reason for that.
Will crypto mint more billionaires over the next decade? Certainly, but many of them will have been millionaires to start with.
Simply gambling on the price of cryptocurrency does nothing at all for its health as a technology, and technological growth is important for the viability of cryptos as a whole.
https://twitter.com/erikfinman/status/1128394651688427520
Bitcoin by the Numbers
Finman bases his prediction on precisely nothing at all.
A billion dollars is a lot of money. If you bought $1 million in bitcoin today, BTC would need to rise roughly 100,000% for you to become a billionaire by that alone. Which means that Finman’s assertion that anyone who isn’t a billionaire in a decade has only themselves to blame – because they can invest in crypto and board the Trés Commas bus – is probably ridiculous.
The majority of millionaires and billionaires worked hard for decades to earn their money. You rarely hear such pronouncements from them. But let’s not forget, Finman’s attitude toward bitcoin is fleeting. He’s happy now that things are picking up again, just as he was before.
But there’s plenty of reason to be suspicious about the current bull run, fueled in part by false information as it has been. The entanglements of Bitfinex and Tether don’t do much to dissuade a skeptic, either.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.com.
