In today’s market price at $16,801.64/BTC, it will cost $84,008,200 USD to buy 5,000 bitcoins, but $27 was all Kristoffer Koch needed to buy the world’s most valuable digital asset in 2009.
If there is anyone in the cryptocurrency space whose life has been impacted, that person should be Kristoffer Koch, an engineering student who took an early dive into what his peers called a “fake” coin.
Those who are just joining the train now could become billionaires by 2025 if predictions are anything to go by, you can find the full analysis of the future holds for five major cryptos at: https://infomediang.com/bitcoin-predictions
The Norwegian man spent approximately $27 to purchase 5,000 bitcoin in 2009, little he knew that would change his fortune a few years later.
At the time he decided to put his hard-earned 150 Norwegian Kroner to buy unpopular coins (BTC), one bitcoin was barely $0.003 in 2009. And no one was interested in it.
Some months ago, 1BTC crossed $40K and by 2025, 1BTC could be worth several thousand of US dollars, according to a cryptocurrency prediction released recently.
Was Kristoffer Koch a seer?
He’s a man who studied cryptography at an early stage. But never thought bitcoin, a product of what he took interest in, could be the most valuable digital asset less than five years after.
Koch was an average Norwegian who is skilled in electrical engineering. He wasn’t a seer neither was he a prophet.
In fact, no prophet saw the future of cryptocurrency as a virtual currency that could take away financial power from the government.
It was gathered at the time that his girlfriend advised him against spending his money to procure coins that had no value nor were accepted as a means of exchange.
The electrical engineer, who was 29-year-old followed his instinct by buying 5,000 Bitcoin for less than $27.
He told a Norwegian media NRK that not in his wildest dreams “could I have imagined that they would have soared like this”.
Fast forward to 2013, one Bitcoin was already $196, which translates his investment to $980,000.
That also means that the price of 1BTC in 2013 was more than the total value he invested in buying 5000BTC back in 2009 in seven-folds, which he called “bizarre.
“These psychological reflexes that make us attach a value to something that doesn’t have any in itself.”
He got an additional name for himself
The Norwegian man he’s still very humble in his apartment in his home country, he remained one of the success stories of bitcoin.
But some internet searchers who want to get more information about him call him Kristoffer Koch bitcoin.
When you’re sitting on thousands of digital currency worth several millions of US dollars, why won’t people add the coin to your name?
Today, the former student of engineering is seen as one of the crypto influencers back home in Norway.
How did he come across bitcoin?
In 2009, he was writing a thesis on encryption. He decided to take a dive into the world of cryptography.
That would change his life a few years after.
One might want to ask:
How much was bitcoin in 2009 when Kock bought 5000BTC?
The history of bitcoin as we know today would be incomplete without Satoshi Nakomoto, an “unknown” inventor of peer-to-peer electronic cash systems.
In his paper detailing methods, the peer-to-peer network was posted in a cryptography mailing list.
And by January 3, 2009, bitcoin network came into existence with Nakomoto mining genesis of bitcoin which had a reward of 50BTC.
In 2009, there was no exchange market for bitcoin. Those who fell in love with crypto were only using it for hobby purposes.
So, at the time, bitcoin had no value in 2009, meaning it was easy for you to acquire thousands of bitcoin with $100 or less.
That’s exactly the advantage Kristoffer Koch had over bitcoin and rightfully took good use of it when everyone around him was sceptical.
It’s on record that a user, “SmokeTooMuch” auctioned 10,000BTC in March 2010 for only $50, unfortunately, no buyer came.
The price of bitcoin was only 0.003 in March 2010 when bitcoinmarket.com, now defunct began operating as the peer exchange.
Why did bitcoinmarket.com fold up?
Very simple. No one was ready to trade bitcoin. No one was ready to put their money in what had no value.
Koch might have bought it to have some fun. He’s known for buying frivolous technology-related things.
He was quoted as saying, “I buy a lot of technical little things that I never have time to use, and this was the worst of all, the fact that I was buying ‘fake’ money”.
How did he hear about the price of bitcoin in 2013?
Later in 2013, Koch read in the news that the price of bitcoin had risen. He knew he had an investment in digital assets because he was actively tracking his digital assets portfolios.
But that took him more time to figure out his password to unlock his wallet which opened his way to financial freedom.
The Norwegian Engineer sold the fifth of the 5,000BTC. He sold off 1000BTC, $196 per BTC which turned into several thousand Norwegian kroner.
After paying taxes, he bought for himself an apartment in Oslo’s fashionable Toyen area and a car.
What some folks tagged as fake back in 2009 turned to fortune for him, “I thought to myself, didn’t I have something like that?”
Is he the only bitcoin success story?
Definitely not. As speculative the cryptocurrency is, the digital asset has produced thousands of millionaires across the World.
Just like Mr. Kristoffer Koch, some guys are some of the good stories in the crypto world, though we hear little about them.
Some of them include:
- Kevin purchased 259,684 BTC for under $3,000 in 2011, Bitcointalk forums reported.
- Erik Voorhees, founder of Satoshi Dice (bitcoin gambling site) and sold it for 126,315 BTC.
The story goes on and on.
What’s Kristoffer Koch’s Net Worth In Bitcoin?
No one can specifically say Kock’s net worth, but as at 2013 when he sold fifth of his bitcoins, he was having at least 4,000 bitcoin in his wallet.
Between 2013 till date (December 2020), bitcoin had risen from $130/1BTC to over $19,000.
The price isn’t stable as we saw in December 2017 when 1BTC reached $19,783.06 (Dec. 17, 2017) first all-time high before nose-diving to less than $14,000.
And sometimes in December 2018, it fell to less than $4,000 before picking its value race reaching a new all-time of $19,850.11 on November 30, 2020.
At the time of publication, 1BTC was $39,547 using our cryptocurrency calculator, and we could see the number of BTC that have been traded on coinmarketcap, a crypto-tracking trading analytics website.
This means Kristoffer Kock is worth 158,987,600.00 US dollars today if his remaining 4000BTC is still in his wallet.
It means Kock is worth 1,336,570,596.00 Norwegian kroner. If he comes to Nigeria, he’ll definitely be worth N63,012,414,040.00
What exactly would you be doing if you have 4000BTC in your wallet right now? Share your thoughts with us.