Student invested in Bitcoin while writing his college thesis and discovers fortune years later; understand
Engineer Kristoffer Koch decided to invest $27 when the cryptocurrency was still unknown
With Bitcoin in the spotlight, the cryptocurrency industry is experiencing one of its best moments. The arrival of new users and the expectations surrounding the first measures of American President Donald Trump in favor of the sector not only fuel excitement and optimism on social media but also revive iconic cases that shaped the crypto community worldwide. One of these stories is that of Kristoffer Koch, an engineer from Norway.
In 2009, Koch was working on his thesis about cryptography. It was then that he discovered Bitcoin, a digital asset with little popularity and value. Out of curiosity, he decided to invest about 150 Norwegian kroner ($27) in 5,000 bitcoins. Over time, Koch lost interest and forgot about the purchase.
But Bitcoin caught his attention again in 2013 when the value of the cryptocurrency skyrocketed and made headlines in major media outlets around the world. When checking his digital wallet — something that took several attempts because he had forgotten his password — he had a surprising surprise: his 5,000 bitcoins had reached a value of $885,000 (R$ 4.9 million).
Without hesitation, Koch used a good portion of his fortune to improve his quality of life and buy a luxury apartment in Oslo, among other investments — he kept several bitcoins, which are now worth about $100,000 (R$ 567,000). The crypto community recognizes and celebrates this case as an example of the unpredictable power of cryptocurrencies.$BTC #BTC
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First of all, have you heard about the guy who accidentally threw away his hard drive containing $220 million in Bitcoins? Yes, you read that right. James Howells, a British IT worker, realized his mistake after he had already thrown away the hard drive. He even offered the local council an impressive 25% of the Bitcoin's value if they would allow him to dig through the landfill where he thinks the hard drive is buried. Talk about a costly mistake!
Perhaps the most striking news for bitcoiners this week was the report that the White House actually wants to buy more BTC.
Participants in a closed-door roundtable organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute on Tuesday confirmed to Decrypt that the new administration is planning to buy as much of the cryptocurrency as possible. At least that's what Bo Hines, the executive director of the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets, reportedly said.
#BitcoinBounceBack Digital coins and tokens are starting to recover on Tuesday after being hard hit by the twists and turns of President Trump's foreign policy, along with ongoing inflation fears.
Major coins like Bitcoin, XRP, and Solana are now in the green over the last 24 hours, with the price of Bitcoin now rising nearly 5% during this period, according to CoinGecko. It is being traded at $ 83.119 per coin at the time this article was written.
The largest coin by market capitalization fell below US$ 77.000 on Monday due to fears of a possible recession in the U.S., dropping sharply along with U.S. tech stocks and other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum and Solana hit their lowest prices in over a year on Monday as well, with cryptocurrency futures liquidations exceeding US$ 700 million.
Bitcoin still has a long way to go before hitting its all-time high of nearly US$ 109.000 in January, however. It has fallen nearly 24% since it set that last milestone.
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$BNB A BNB, although it was born as a utility token, it has gained a series of new functionalities over time, becoming the main competitor of Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, alongside Cardano (ADA).
Known within the cryptocurrency market for having an easy-to-use Blockchain network and low transaction costs, it has increasingly become an alternative to Ethereum, which has suffered greatly from network congestion, significantly raising its transaction fees.
Cryptocurrency markets observe: experts share their insights after Trump's latest move.
Cryptocurrencies remained in the red on Friday, but reduced most of the sharp losses from the previous day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic reserve of bitcoin (SBR) for the United States, along with a separate "stock of digital assets".
Bitcoin fell 2.5% in the last 24 hours, to $2,224,934,049,889.250 at 6:38 ET. The leading cryptocurrency briefly dropped to $2,224,934,049,884.688.13 on Thursday after news of the reserve emerged.
Other major tokens, including Ether, XRP, Solana's SOL, and Cardano's ADA, traded lower but also reduced previous losses. These assets recovered earlier in the week after Trump signaled that they would be included in the new strategy.
David Sacks, the White House crypto and AI czar, said in a post on X that the Bitcoin reserve will consist of assets that the U.S. government already holds, primarily from seizures by law enforcement authorities. He emphasized that this approach “will not cost taxpayers a dime”.
According to Arkham, the U.S. currently holds over 198,000 bitcoins, valued at approximately $2,224,934,049,817 billion.
The separate stock of digital assets will include “digital assets other than bitcoins lost in criminal or civil proceedings,” Sacks said.
He also noted that the government does not plan to acquire additional assets beyond those obtained through confiscation. Arkham data indicates that the U.S. holds about 56 ether tokens worth nearly $2,224,934,049,811.9 million, though it does not list holdings of XRP, Solana, or Cardano.
The initial market reaction on Thursday reflected investors' disappointment with the lack of immediate Bitcoin purchases by the government, mainly amid the overall weakness of stocks.
#TrumpCongressSpeech In a long speech this Tuesday (4), the President of the United States, Donald Trump, reinforced in the American Congress, over more than 100 minutes, the main banners of his new government (such as the trade war, threats to Greenland, and the fight against immigration).
$ADA Although prices rose between Sunday and Monday, after Trump provided more details about the US cryptocurrency reserve, which, in addition to Bitcoin, is expected to include altcoins like ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA, the changes in macroeconomic narratives continue to pressure the crypto market.
"Trump's reserve plan, confirmed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, along with swift retaliatory measures from Canada and China, are adding more uncertainty to an already turbulent landscape," analysts at QCP Capital wrote this morning.
"With constantly changing macroeconomic conditions, the crypto market remains highly correlated with stocks, reflecting broader economic swings," they added.
The uncertain scenario is expected to prevail in the market until Friday (7), when the first White House Crypto Summit takes place, an event that will bring together leading figures from the crypto industry and key policymakers at the White House in the US.
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Tariffs on Mexico and Canada begin this Tuesday and there is no room for reversal, says Trump
The measure imposes a 25% tax on imports of Canadian and Mexican products; Yesterday, the American president also announced an increase in the tax imposed on China
Donald Trump, the American president, confirmed yesterday (3) the fears of his trading partners: starting this Tuesday (4), the new round of tariffs on imported products from Canada, Mexico, and China will take effect.
The measure imposes a 25% increase on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the USA. Also this afternoon, the American president confirmed a 100% increase in the tariff on products
The justification from Trump's government for the decision is to pressure these countries to curb the flow of drugs and migrants to the USA.
One of the main groups responsible for these attacks is the infamous Lazarus group, which is linked to North Korea. The group was behind 47 attacks last year, totaling more than $1.34 billion stolen.
Well-known cypherpunk and Blockstream CEO Adam Back took to his X account to criticize the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As Back pointed out, the EVM is the main factor that allowed the attack to succeed.
In his analysis, Adam Back stated that the complexity of EVM transactions and the structure of Ethereum itself were the main reasons why hackers were able to drain the funds from Bybit's cold wallet.
The attack reportedly occurred when Bybit was trying to transfer $100 million in Ethereum from a cold wallet to a hot wallet. The hackers then exploited the blind signature mechanism involved in this process. In this way, they managed to manipulate the ETH smart contract and drain all the funds, resulting in a billion-dollar loss.
Adam Back criticizes EVM
On Saturday, Adam Back once again shared his opinions on the incident, highlighting that “Bitcoin’s dominance is growing” and criticizing Ethereum and EVM as “complex, fragile, blindly signed and insecure”.
Other influential figures in the crypto world, such as JAN3 CEO Samson Mow, ironically suggested that Vitalik Buterin promote a rollback on the Ethereum blockchain to recover the lost funds, similar to what happened in 2016 with the DAO hack, which resulted in the birth of Ethereum Classic (ETC).
However, the Ethereum team made it clear that, from the protocol’s point of view, the transaction that drained Bybit’s funds was as legal as any other on the network.
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Tension in crypto assets: Bitcoin and Ethereum fall after Bybit suffers hack attack worth US$$ 1 billion
On Friday (21), Bybit's ethereum cold wallet (not connected to the internet) was hacked; 401,346 ETH tokens were lost, equivalent to US$$ 1 billion, at current prices.
Those who invest in cryptocurrencies woke up this Saturday (22) scared to see the devaluation of the main crypto assets. The fall in the virtual currency market began after a hack attack on Bybit, the second largest brokerage in the world in terms of crypto asset trading volume.
In 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC) fell 2.3%, quoted at US$$ 96,858.80. Ethereum (ETH) has fallen 3.4% in the last 24 hours, trading at US$$ 2,733.99.
Bybit: Understand what happened
On Friday (21), Bybit's ethereum cold wallet (not connected to the internet) was hacked. In total, 401,346 ETH tokens were lost, equivalent to US$$ 1 billion, at current prices.
The cryptocurrency market was trading high before the hack and the value reached over US$$ 1.4 billion. Despite the information still being preliminary, this may be the largest hacker attack with stolen funds in the history of the digital assets market.
According to initial information, the criminals were using wallet mixers to make it difficult to track the tokens. It is worth remembering that cold wallets are considered more secure precisely because they are not connected to the internet.
Since the attack occurred on this specific type of wallet from the brokerage firm intended for ETH, this means that the flaw only affected Bybit's own assets, without compromising users' deposits.#Ethereum
$ETH Cryptocurrency tension: Bitcoin and Ethereum fall after Bybit suffers a hacker attack worth US$ 1 billion
On Friday (21), Bybit's ethereum cold wallet (not connected to the internet) was hacked; 401,346 ETH tokens were lost, equivalent to US$ 1 billion, at current prices.
Those who invest in cryptocurrencies woke up this Saturday (22) scared to see the devaluation of the main cryptoassets. The fall in the virtual currency market began after a hacker attack on Bybit, the second largest brokerage in the world in terms of cryptoasset trading volume.
In 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC) fell 2.3%, trading at US$ 96,858.80. Ethereum (ETH) has fallen 3.4% in the last 24 hours, trading at US$2,733.99.
Bybit: Understand what happened
On Friday (21), Bybit's ethereum cold wallet (not connected to the internet) was hacked. In total, 401,346 ETH tokens were lost, equivalent to US$1 billion at current prices.
The cryptocurrency market was trading high before the hack, and the value reached over US$1.4 billion. Despite the information still being preliminary, this could be the largest hacker attack with stolen funds in the history of the digital assets market.
According to initial information, the criminals were using wallet mixers to make it difficult to track the tokens. It is worth remembering that cold wallets are considered safer precisely because they are not connected to the internet. Since the attack occurred on this specific type of exchange wallet intended for ETH, this means that the flaw only affected Bybit's own assets, without compromising users' deposits.
$LTC Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency completely independent from Bitcoin, which uses a different mining algorithm and mechanism. As its name suggests, Litecoin was created to be a lighter crypto than Bitcoin.
However, the two cryptocurrencies share technological similarities in the use of Blockchain. In this article, we tell you what the main similarities and differences are between the two, how Litecoin works and whether it is worth investing in this asset.
#GasFeeImpact During high network congestion, gas prices rise as more users bid for transaction processing. Conversely, gas prices tend to lower during quieter periods. Gas price and congestion influence transaction speed, as miners prioritize transactions with higher fees