MicroStrategy's Significant Bitcoin Impairment Losses May Mislead: Berenberg
Turkish Crypto Exchange Thodex CEO Faruk Özer Sentenced to 11,196 Years in Prison for Collapse
DeFi and Credit Risk
Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, everybody! Here's some trivia before you order a Margherita to honor the world's first real-world Bitcoin transaction:
A family vacation to Japan, a 50 Cent record, a steak dinner, and a framed cat photograph all have something in common.
Members of the Cointelegraph Bitcoin community paid for them all with Bitcoin (BTC)! And, like the 10,000 BTC Bitcoin pizzas that are now valued more than $300 million, the community's Bitcoin purchases have risen.
"I spent 7 BTC on a family trip to Japan a few years ago," Benjamin de Waal, VP of Engineering at Bitcoin exchange Swan Bitcoin, told Cointelegraph. 7 BTC is now worth considerably over $200,000, yet Ben is content since his children are happy:
"It would have been much more valuable now, but I have no regrets." A happy, adventurous, and educational childhood is priceless."
Scammer vigilante Felix Crisan told Cointelegraph that in 2015, he spent 50 BTC (about $1.5 million) constructing a new software module for his company. In 2016, Crisan added the following:
"Let's not forget some nearly 1BTC'spent' on who will be the next US president." [...] I didn't win, of course."
At the current market price of BTC, that's a $30,000 wager.
Jeffrey Albus, editor of Cointelegraph, revealed that "sometime in 2011 or early 2012," he splurged on a steak meal to illustrate Bitcoin's peer-to-peer capabilities.
"We paid 15 BTC: 12 for the lunch and 3 for the tip (which the waitress most likely tossed away.)"
Worse, the value of 15 BTC back then was so low that it fell short of the total cost, forcing Albus to top it up with good old greenbacks. The Bitcoiner-friendly steak supper is now valued just under half a million dollars.
Julien Liniger, CEO of Swiss Bitcoin exchange Relai–and a self-proclaimed Bitcoin maximalist–told Cointelegraph that he "purchased a bitcoin hoodie for 0.1 BTC back in the days, but that was the final thing" — a $3,000 hoodie. "It then became too dumb of a thing for me to spend instead of stack sats," he explained.
Meanwhile, the CoinCorner team, the UK Bitcoin exchange behind the contactless Lightning Network payment card, offered a few tales. When the market price of Bitcoin was approximately $600, the CEO, Danny Scott, purchased 50 Cent's album "Animal Ambition" with Bitcoin. Let's hope Scott forgets about the lost profits as 50 Cent did when he "forgot" he accepted 700 BTC for the album.
"I bought a photo postcard of my kitties [...] for 0.009 BTC," Molly Spiers, CoinCorner's Head of Marketing, told Cointelegraph. Spiers was unable to maintain hold of the $270 postcard; 'I've misplaced them somewhere over the years - I'd have framed them with pride!"
Fortunately, "no regrets" exist since "it makes for a nice story." She also shared a photo of the cats:
While “experimenting with Bitcoin as a currency,” Matthew Ward, CoinCorner’s software developer, told Cointelegraph that he “bought the game Cities Skylines back when it launched on Steam in March 2015 for 0.108 BTC.” You can be the judge of whether the graphics merit a $3,000 price tag:
Finally, Didi Taihuttu, also known as the Bitcoin Tattoo Guy and the Father of the Bitcoin Family, spent 2.75 BTC on a Bitcoin miner in 2014. "The strangest aspect is that when BTC hit approximately $200, I stopped mining BTC and started mining dogecoin (DOGE)," Taihuttu told Cointelegraph. He would have had almost $180,000 if he had kept the BTC.
Taihuttu also revealed that he's lost over 9 BTC ($270,000) during his exploits as The Bitcoin Family, which he characterizes as "losing 9 BTC but gaining an incredible journey."
For those curious about what happened to the 10,000BTC Hanyecz spent on pizzas, CoinCryptoUS analysis shows that 5% of the total went to an extremely rich wallet, while "part of the funds were seemingly liquidated" on a bankrupt crypto exchange.
The wealthy wallet that ate portion of Hanyecz's BTC is among the top 15 wealthiest Bitcoin wallets, with over 53,000 BTC. A certified Bitcoin hodler, the total spent or sent from the wallet is 0 BTC.
=====
