Reddit Roasts $500k Lottery Winner Who Invested Half in Bitcoin

by
Ryan Smith
My articles My books
Follow on:

• An Illinois man provides proof of his $500,000 in lottery winnings and claims he put half of them in bitcoin.
• Reddit roasts the man with crypto memes and says he made several crucial mistakes.
• Either way, his investment has already paid off with an almost 100% return.

An Illinois man who won the lottery earlier this year has invested half of his winnings into bitcoin. The man who posted the score via Reddit confirmed on Monday that he had purchased roughly $178,000 worth of BTC back in May.

He also challenged readers to remind him in eight months if the investment was a good one, presumably in relation to the bitcoin price. Reddit had other ideas, of course.

Going by the handle Joxnlol, the man explained that he first had to fork over $143,000 in taxes to the state. While half of his $357,000 in net winnings went into a year-long bitcoin investment, the other half was directed at various other real-world needs:

“That’s the plan, I don’t intend to touch any of it for at least another year. I set aside money for emergencies, for myself, and for tattoos… I paid off my old car, set up an agreement to sell it to my friend. Bought a new car and put a down payment on a house.”

Reddit Roasts Joxnlol For Not Holding His Own Bitcoin Keys

In contrast to Joxnlol’s forthcoming lottery post, Reddit quickly jumped on the troll bus. Some claimed that the post was fake news, while a larger number of other posters tore into the lucky scratch card winner for revealing too much about his identity.

The result was a slew of comments claiming that it only takes a $5 wrench to track him down and relieve him of his winnings.

However, Joxnlol disputed the notion that wrench thugs would be coming round to his house anytime soon:

“I live in a neighborhood where most people have more than $500,000. If they’re going to target me, they’re going to target everyone else as well.”

Reddit was also not impressed with Joxnlol’s decision to buy bitcoin using stock trading app Robinhood. The fintech startup, which was valued at $7.6 billion earlier this year, does not allow users to transfer crypto.

According to Joxnlol, it also takes Robinhood a “scary” week and a half to cash you out of any bitcoin position. That dodgy policy led critics to reiterate that old crypto adage: “not your keys, not your crypto.”

Timely Investment Thanks to Bitcoin Price Rally

Joxnlol revealed that he had “jumped into” bitcoin in early May when the flagship cryptocurrency was hovering around $5,500. His decision turned out to be a rather fortuitous one thanks to a 100% rally that doubled his investment in a mere two months.

Bitcoin has subsequently fallen off the pace, of course, but still yields a handsome 70% profit:

That might not be a fluke. A recent high-profile poll suggested that bitcoin is the go-to alternative asset for long-term investments, at least among one particular segment of social media users.

Click here for a live bitcoin price chart.