🧵 The $25 Billion Bitcoin "What If" Tragedy – A True Story from 2011 😱
Imagine this: It's June 19, 2011. Bitcoin is still a baby – just $17 per coin. Then, chaos hits Mt. Gox, the biggest exchange.
A hacker breaches the platform, dumps massive BTC, and crashes the price from $17... to $0.01. In minutes. 💥
Panic everywhere. But one guy in Nebraska, a gamer named Kevin Day, sees opportunity.
He slams in a buy order with everything he has (~$2,600) and scoops up ~260,000 BTC at pennies each.
His account explodes. Instant multi-millionaire (on paper). He even withdraws 643 BTC just before things lock down.
Then... disaster. 😭
Mt. Gox realizes it's a hack. To fix it, they ROLL BACK every trade during the crash.
Kevin's massive haul? Erased. Gone. Poof.
Those 260k BTC today? Worth over $25 BILLION. 🌕
The wild part: Kevin could've sued the exchange and maybe won big. But he didn't.
He chose NOT to – didn't want to risk killing young Bitcoin with lawsuits and bad press.
A true early HODLer sacrifice for the greater good. 🫡
Moral of the story? NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS. 🔑
Self-custody forever. What's your biggest crypto "what if"?
