Sold his 1st startup for 126,000 BTC
Buying since it was below $5
Erik thought he was late to #Bitcoin – buying the top in 2011
The price was $30, and some were mad at the early adopters
Not Erik – he bought the dip down to $2 ✊
A die-hard Libertarian, Erik was well-read on the classics.
At $12, he started a blog where he called #Bitcoin “the separation of money and state.”
It was a masterclass on Austrian economics 👏
By 2012, Erik joined forces with fellow founder Charlie Shrem
BitInstant was the fastest-growing #Bitcoin exchange.
Here they are at NY Tech Day: BTC was $5 🤩
With Erik onboard, business boomed
Here’s BitInstant’s booth at PorcFest 2012
Erik sold thousands of #Bitcoin for less than $7 – at one of the largest freedom conferences in the world 🇺🇸
Erik became a tireless promoter of #Bitcoin
At just 25-years-old, he was traveling the world, explaining how BTC was a better money – a digital gold.
Here he is celebrating the 1st halving. The price was $12 💥
Here’s Erik and the BitInstant team at Money2020 – the largest U.S. financial conference in 2012
Erik made sure #Bitcoin had a booth right next to PayPal
A decentralized network taking on a centralized giant 👊
Very soon, BitInstant would raise millions
At its peak, it was 30% of the USD exchange volume
It let you walk into any CVS or Walgreens and buy #Bitcoin 👏
BitInstant became the center of the 2013 #Bitcoin startup scene
Here’s Erik taking a photo of one late-night CEO poker game
Pots got as high as 100 BTC ❗
Erik’s biggest success, though, was SatoshiDice.
Over 50% of ALL BITCOIN VOLUME at peak, it was a provably fair dice game that let users bet #Bitcoin.
It made online gambling possible in the US – when the state was trying to make it illegal 😠
Nothing about SatoshiDice or FeedZeBirds was conventional.
They even went public on #Bitcoin stock markets – users could buy shares of both companies for #Bitcoin
They even paid dividends – directly in $BTC ⭐The SEC was none too happy.
They couldn’t just let an entrepreneur raise #Bitcoin from users all over the world.
They sued Erik and shut his companies down 😡
It was a dark time for Erik and #Bitcoin.
The U.S. government closed down BitInstant
Erik’s best friend Charlie was thrown in jail 😔
Erik wouldn’t be silenced.
He kept on innovating – creating a new crypto exchange with no KYC
In 2014, he launched ShapeShift under a secret identity 😲