Years later, a student who had completely forgotten about a $27 Bitcoin purchase made for a class assignment suddenly found himself sitting on an astonishing fortune.
For Kristoffer Koch, this unexpected windfall must have felt like something straight out of a dream — the kind most of us only imagine.
At just 25 years old, he took a bold gamble on the emerging world of digital currency. Inspired by an early 2008 paper written by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto — the enigmatic creator (or group) behind Bitcoin — Kristoffer bought Bitcoin in 2009, despite being unsure about what the digital currency truly was.
Koch took a leap of faith and bought 5,000 Bitcoins, captivated by the promise of cutting-edge technology. While reports vary, his initial investment was somewhere between $22 and $27.
But as the years rolled by, Koch largely forgot about his digital stash, convinced there was nothing worthwhile to spend it on. In fact, he once joked to Binance Feed, “Back then, the only thing you could buy with Bitcoin was alpaca socks. So, I moved on with my life and focused on finding a stable job.”
Everything changed four years later when he decided to check the value of his Bitcoin holdings—and was stunned to see they’d soared to a jaw-dropping $850,000. Not bad for what started as a $27 gamble and a few pairs of alpaca socks!
Fast forward to today, that investment has multiplied nearly 22 million times, now worth an eye-watering estimated $594.5 million.
Reflecting on his extraordinary fortune, Koch told local media, “Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine the value would skyrocket like this.” He added, “It’s strange how our minds assign value to things that really have none at first.”
Like many Bitcoin holders, Koch kept his fortune in an encrypted digital wallet—and it took him a while to remember the password to access it.
In 2013, after hitting it big, Koch cashed out one-fifth of his Bitcoin, paid taxes, and bought a luxurious apartment in Oslo. Today, if he still holds onto the remaining four-fifths, his fortune would be worth an incredible $475 million—a truly smart investment.