Bitcoin millionaire Erik Finman has made a bold comment and said that if you’re not a millionaire in 10 years ‘it’s your own fault.’
The 19-year-old first got involved with cryptocurrencies when he was 12 after receiving a $1,000 gift from his grandmother. Instead of spending the money on clothes, toys or games, he invested his money into bitcoin on the advice from his older brother, purchasing 100 units of the coin.
In 2013, he then cashed in the first of his cryptocurrency investments when the coin was valued at $1,200, walking away with $100,000. He was then able to setup his first startup, Botangle, an online education platform providing students with connections to teachers digitally. This he later sold, after launching it in 2014, for 300 bitcoins.
Such is the success that he’s had that Finman advised young investors to find something they are good at and ‘make money doing it.’
Now, though, in a report from Business Insider, he explained that people can easily do the same as he has, adding:
If you are smart about cryptocurrency over the next 10 years, many people can build their fortunes even better than before.
However, he added that even though the market capitalisation is still relatively small compared to other asset classes, ‘if you do not become a millionaire in the next 10 years, then it’s your own fault.’
His comments come at a time when the digital currency market has been struggling to regain previous highs amid regulatory uncertainty from various governments. Bitcoin saw its value fall below $8,000 today, at $7,796, according to CoinMarketCap. It has since risen back to $8,744.
Wild fluctuations have also been seen with other cryptocurrencies struggling. Second-placed ethereum is once again below $1,000, at $901, dropping 14.35 percent in 24 hours. Whereas, ripple, the third most valuable digital currency has decreased in value by 30.49 percent over a seven day period. It’s currently trading at $0.843576.
Despite the recent turndown in value, Finman is still confident in the future of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
He said:
I still believe in cryptocurrencies. There are always ups and downs on the way up. Many people have anticipated this decline. It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy after many experts spoke of a bubble.