{"id":33637,"date":"2020-12-18T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=33637"},"modified":"2025-08-28T14:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:48:22","slug":"former-bitcoin-developer-sold-coins-worth-about-1-2-billion-at-5-apiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/former-bitcoin-developer-sold-coins-worth-about-1-2-billion-at-5-apiece\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bitcoin developer sold coins worth about $1.2 billion at $5 apiece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Bitcoin developer Martti Malmi has said that he sold 55,000 BTC by 2012. The current value of those coins now exceeds $1.2 billion.<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\"><p>\\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\\\"ltr\\\" lang=\\\"en\\\">I\u2019d be a billionaire now if I hadn&#8217;t sold the 55,000 bitcoins I mined on my laptop in 2009-2010 way too early (mostly before 2012). That is regretful, but then again, with the early bitcoiners we set in motion something greater than personal gain.<\/p>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marttimalmi\/status\/1339908783187832834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">December 18, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I would be a billionaire today if I hadn&#8217;t sold 55,000 BTC mined on my laptop in 2009-2010 too early\u2014mostly before 2012,&#8221; Malmi said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to him, in 2010 he worked on launching a now-defunct exchange called Bitcoin Exchange.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t really such thing as an exchange rate back then, and I ran the trading platform largely as a Bitcoin faucet, not a business, and as a result I ended up with 30,000 BTC less.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The former developer noted that he never thought about making money from Bitcoin:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It happened by accident, as a side product when Satoshi asked me to keep my node running so others could connect to the network.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>His Bitcoin holdings were enough to buy a one-bedroom apartment near Helsinki.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;This is an achievement for a 22-year-old guy who never had a lot of money. Probably now it&#8217;s the most expensive studio in the world, but at least it&#8217;s more than two pizzas,&#8221; Malmi writes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Later he wanted to hold onto the coins, but after losing his job in 2012 he was forced to sell most of them at around $5 apiece.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;This is regrettable, but again the early Bitcoin enthusiasts got something greater than personal gain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Malmi added that he drew a few lessons from the experience:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Money matters\u2014 the more you have, the better. However you don&#8217;t need to be rich to live a good life. And you don&#8217;t live forever, and striving for something bigger gives life meaning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at about $22,860.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that in 2013 he sold half of the bitcoins he had, <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/vitalik-buterin-sold-half-of-his-bitcoins-to-avoid-going-broke\">to avoid going broke<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog&#8217;s Telegram news: <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogfeed\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\">ForkLog Feed<\/a> \u2014 all news, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\">ForkLog<\/a> \u2014 the most important news and polls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Bitcoin developer Martti Malmi said that he sold 55,000 BTC by 2012. The current value of those coins now exceeds $1.2 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-33637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"16","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33639,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33637\/revisions\/33639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}