At 12 Years Old, Used 1,000 USD Given by Grandma to Buy Bitcoin, Became a Millionaire at 18 Thanks to Digital Currency

"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." — Erik Finman, dropout and entrepreneur In 2011, when Erik Finman was only 12 years old, he took the $1,000 that his grandmother had given him and invested it in bitcoin. At that time, one bitcoin was priced at about $10. You first learned about bitcoin when your brother took you to a rally at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. When you saw a man wearing a shirt with the bitcoin logo, you asked your brother what bitcoin was. "It will end Wall Street, bro." Erik started studying bitcoin and can see a bright future. "For three years, I mostly just traded bitcoin and studied at school, and that was it." But he never liked high school. "People don’t really understand what I’m trying to do, understand what I’m looking for, or what I’m dreaming about. I have a teacher who told me, yes, drop out and work at McDonald's because I will never achieve anything more in life," he explained. So, you dropped out of school at the age of 15 and made a bet with your parents — if you earn a million dollars before turning 18, you don't have to go back to school or attend college. Immediately, he sold $100,000 worth of bitcoin and started a business from his bedroom. Inspired by negative experiences at school, he built an education company, Botangle, where teachers would teach students skills through video chat. For example, an Australian wanting to learn Japanese could hire a private tutor in Tokyo. Two years later, he sold his company for 300 bitcoin. When bitcoin surpassed $2,700, you officially became a millionaire. More importantly, you are 17 years old, so you won the bet with your parents. Instead of going to college, you traveled around the world to Dubai, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Prague, Sydney, Melbourne, Vienna, and Stockholm. Today, you have increased your bitcoin assets and have a net worth of up to 8 digits. You are a key investor in a cryptocurrency startup in Silicon Valley and have helped introduce the Cryptocurrency Act of 2020 as a citizen advocate.