Millionaire bitcoin teen claims: If you don't become rich in the next 10 years, then it’s your own fault
Get money updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
The price of bitcoin is crashing - losing almost half its value in the past month and now more than $10,000 less than its peak in December.
But for one teenager, that's really not a problem. Meet Erik Finman , who at 19 is worth millions thanks to the digital currency.
And the crash isn't putting him off at all.
"For me, however, it would be the wrong strategy to sell after such a fall in prices, because I believe that there is a real chance that value will rise again to the levels we last saw," he told Business Insider .
"I remain stuck with my bitcoins — and there are a lot of them."
How he made his millions
Erik started putting money into bitcoin seven years ago, using - picking up coins when they cost $12 each.
He was just 12 at the time, and the €1,000 he used came from his grandmother - it was originally meant to help him at college.
But Erik didn't want to go to college, so he made a bet with his parents. If he was a millionare by the time he turned 18, he wouldn't have to go.
Thanks to his bitcoin purchases - that's exactly what he became and the price rose from $12 to ten times that in a year, and more than a thousand times that by last year.
And he thinks you can do it too.
"I say if you do not become a millionaire in the next 10 years, then it’s your own fault," he said.
"New business models and innovations are still emerging in this area, and therefore, there are many investment opportunities. It’s a new kind of gold fever, or a new kind of Silicon Valley — there are really plenty of opportunities."
But what about the price crash?
Last year the real growth in cryptocurrency wasn't from bitoin.
While it grabbed headlines with it's high value, other coins would have been a smarter bet.
Last year Ethereum - the second biggest cryptocurrency - rose from $8.72 to peak at $1,339 a coin. Ripple rose from the astonishingly low $0.0062 to $3.50.
So while bitcoin increases by 2,000%, Ethereum rose 15,000%.
Since then, more or less everything has crashed. But if you got in in January, you would still be sitting on massive profits.
Erik, who's positive about the future of the market, thinks that just makes it a good time to buy.
"I have many friends and fans who almost begged for a crash. They asked for a correction and a crash because they wanted to buy but thought the price was too high," he said.
"This drop in the price of bitcoin gives them a chance. And now you must have the courage to really get involved. Otherwise, at some point, you look back and think, 'If only I had bought after the reset.' So I really guess people are now using the reset to buy."