He had it all. Then he lost everything — not in a crash, but with a knock at the door.
Chris Larson (not to be confused with the Ripple co-founder) was just another early Bitcoiner.
In 2011, he bought a few hundred $BTC on a whim — tech curiosity, nothing serious. He forgot about it for years.
By 2017, the price was exploding.
He checked his old wallet: 354 BTC.
More than $7 million at the time.
He didn’t tell anyone. He moved to a quiet suburb near Oslo, Norway. He drove a used #Toyota . Never flaunted a thing.
But someone noticed. Maybe a slip in a conversation. Maybe a shared IP.
Whatever it was… one night, there was a knock.
A man in a ski mask forced his way in.
Tied Chris to a chair.
Put a knife to his throat.
“Transfer the Bitcoin, or I start cutting.”🔪🩸🩸
It wasn’t digital loss. It was primal, physical, terrifying.
Chris obeyed. He sent all 354 BTC.
The attacker vanished before police could arrive.🚔
The coins were laundered within hours through mixers.
Gone. Forever.🪙
Chris survived, but he never logged in again.
He now lives abroad, under a different name. He won’t talk to press.
He says the worst part isn’t the money.
It’s that crypto was supposed to set him free — not make him a target.
He played it safe.
He didn’t brag.
He didn’t leverage or #YOLO into memecoins.
And still — he lost it all.
Some say it’s a cautionary tale.
Others say it’s the price of being early.
But deep down, everyone feels the same thing:
How close we all are to being him.