In the Bitcoin generation comes the story of someone who missed out on a massive bull run and could no longer go on. On the Bitcoin subreddit, one man recently recounted the tragic account of his brother, who got in on the cryptocurrency early, then had most of his holdings stolen, then unloaded the rest, only to be devastated over the meteoric rise in Bitcoin’s price.
Here’s the tale: “He claimed to have owned 15,000 [BTC] at one point, which may have been an exaggeration. But I know for a fact that at some point around October-November 2012, he did have at least 6,000 BTC, which he showed me in his wallets. He was so enthusiastic about Bitcoin and how cryptocurrencies would revolutionize the financial world.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened to his BTC. Sometime in 2013, he claimed to have lost most of them in a hack and sold the remainder too early…. As the price took off in late 2013-early 2014, you could tell he was distraught over it and became increasingly withdrawn from family and friends. Whenever I did manage to contact him, he would sometimes end up ranting about how badly he had f**ked up and how he would never have a chance to be rich again.
“As the price climbed up to $10,000 over the past several months, it became even more difficult to make contact with him; he just wouldn’t reply to me or my parents’ calls and texts. A couple weeks ago, my parents flew out to see my brother and found him dead by suicide with no note. He was 29 with 50 years of life ahead of him.”
The surviving brother ended by urging readers: “Please try to recognize there are endless economic opportunities in life and one mistake doesn’t define your future.” Amen.