University student made millions with Bitcoin and NFT and explained what his strategy looked like

The first fortune was with cryptocurrencies. In February 2013, Maegaard, then a 22-year-old psychology student at the Australian University of Sunshine Coast, was postponing an assignment and came across a BBC article on Bitcoin.

Still relatively unknown to the general public at the time, the cryptocurrency had recently doubled from $ 15 to $ 30. Back then, Bitcoin only had a market cap of $ 1 billion to $ 1,000, far less than the total value today. But this piqued Maegaard’s interest for several reasons: currency scarcity would cause prices to rise, believed in the underlying blockchain technology and on the other hand, distrust of traditional fiat systems was mixed.

Maegaard turned to Bitcointalk, a forum where a small, passionate group of crypto enthusiasts were serious. And after a few weeks of reading, he gained enough self-confidence to start investing his weekly paychecks into a part-time job on the shelves of a gas station.

“Everyone thought he was crazy,” he says. “But my philosophy was that this was the time to take risks, when I was young and had no responsibilities like a mortgage, children and bills to pay.” It didn’t take long for the bet to pay off.

By the end of 2013, Bitcoin had grown almost 10 times more than Maegaard’s investment. Right before Bitcoin hit its peak, it cashed in and walked away with $ 10 million.

The second fortune: NFT

In 2017, Maegaard had heard of a new technology called non-fungible tokens (NFT). NFTs were lines of code on a blockchain that prove the authenticity of ownership of a digital asset, such as a work of art, audio file, video clip, or virtual piece of land.

“At the time, I saw TVN as a scam or a grab for money,” he says. But after his travels he began to investigate NFT more intensely and developed the same conviction he had felt with Bitcoin.

Once again, his investment was miraculously timed. In February and March 2021, the NFT market exploded. Maegaard attributes his success to his ability to see value and take “calculated risks”. in highly speculative emerging asset classes. “I want to maximize my profits,” he says. “Everything can go to 0 tomorrow. But I think cryptocurrencies and NFTs are here to stay, and I’m willing to bet for a chance to level up. “