ERIK FINMAN rose to fame when he became a Bitcoin millionaire while still a teenager.
But what is the story behind his crypto success story? And what is his net worth?
Who is Erik Finman?
Erik Finman was raised by his parents Paul and Lorna in Post Falls, a small town outside of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
His first purchase of cryptocurrency came in 2011 at the tender age of just 12, after hearing about Bitcoin from his older brother, Scott.
Scott had taken Finman to an Occupy Wall Street protest, and warned him about the dangers of centralised finance.
“He’s like a hippie, he’s like, ‘Man, I think it’s gonna end Wall Street, all the corruption, and all the bad things’,” Finman said about Scott in a media interview years later.
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Finman decided to use a $1,000 inheritance from his grandmother – which was intended to fund a scholarship – to purchase crypto. Back then, Bitcoin was worth just $10-$12 each.
He then spent his years through high school trading crypto alongside his studies.
“I just spent every day trading to get more after that,” Finman said.
“For three years, I just was basically doing bitcoin trading and school, and that was about it.”
Despite coming from parents with a very academic background, Finman hated school and was eager to avoid going to college.
And so, he made a bet with his parents which at the time seemed almost impossible for him to win.
He said: “I dropped out of high school and made a bet with my parents: if I make a million dollars by the time I’m 18, I don’t have to go back to school or go to college.”
Unexpected to everyone other than himself, Finman came through and became the world’s youngest-ever Bitcoin millionaire.
He made the million at the age of 17 when the value of Bitcoins surpassed $2,700 meaning that his early investments had grown substantially in value.
Following his success, Finman made sure those in his life who had touted him knew about it.
He said: “I remember when the first article [about me] came out, I sent it to the worst teacher I had.
“The subject heading just said ‘look at me now b*tch’.”
Finman put a tracking pixel in the email so he knew the teacher opened it. He says he never heard back.
What is Erik Finman’s net worth and how much Bitcoin does he own?
Erik Finman is thought to have a net worth of over $5million.
It makes him one of the top five crypto millionaires in the world.
Finman has just over 450 Bitcoins in his portfolio in total, having slowly accumulated the coins over a number of years.
The millionaire has previously advised people looking to also grow their savings to allocate 10 per cent of their salary to crypto each month.
How old is Erik Finman now? What is his date of birth?
Erik Finman is now 23-years-old. He was born on October 26, 1998.