An investor has amassed a reported Bitcoin now worth some $50m.
A pretty generous tip now Image: Bitcoin |
A 41-year-old digital investor, Li Xiaolai, a former English teacher from China, started mining and collecting the Bitcoin digital currency just four years ago.
It started after he sold his entire portfolio of New Oriental, an English-teaching school.
After many sleepless nights and price fluctuations, Li has finally seen a return on his investment.
When he first acquired his Bitcoin stock, a coin was worth just a few cents, but in recent weeks the value of a coin has surged to over $500.
Although Li did not specify exactly how many coins he holds, he estimates it is around 1/100 of the total Bitcoins in circulation. The Winklevoss twins, famous for their early involvement in and subsequent dispute with Facebook, also own over 120,000 coins, worth around $60m.
Li accrued such a holding by mining, a process of tasking a computer to solve complex algorithims to generate more coins, but now earns more acting as a guarantor in large Bitcoin transactions.
While Li took time and energy to amass his fortune, some just got lucky. Norway's Kristoffer Koch spent $26 on 5,000 Bitcoins in 2009 out of sheer curiosity, but forgot about his digital stash until earlier this year when media coverage of surging prices prompted him to remember his investment. Koch divested his portfolio to the tune of $850,000 - a return multiple of some 32,000.
The digital currency lost 40% of its value in October after US authorities closed down Silk Road, a narcotics hub trading almost exclusively in Bitcoins, but has since recovered.