Mr.Iles, a 37-year-old NHS doctor from London, has been trying to persuade his friends to buy cryptocurrencies for years. In recent weeks, the “Trump pump” on cryptocurrency prices has made them envious. “They saw with frustration that my bet was rewarded,” he says.
Miles’ crypto portfolio is now worth £2.3million, despite cashing out around £600,000 earlier this year to buy a house. “It set me up for life,” says Miles, who invested £4,000 in Bitcoin in 2012. “My pot fluctuates by the hundreds of thousands every day, but I’ve been through years of volatile periods.”
Miles was one of dozens of people who spoke to the Guardian about why they became retail crypto investors – regular people buying blockchain digital currencies – and how their investment played out over time.
Bitcoin price surpassed $97,000 (£76,500), a new record high, as investors view Donald Trump’s return to the White House as a harbinger of crypto-friendly conditionthings that will legitimize them as traditional assets. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that 12% of UK adults own crypto.
Many respondents said they had entered the crypto market over the past four years, with some using extra funds they accumulated during Covid lockdowns to purchase coins through apps and platforms more user-friendly than the process of acquiring blockchain currencies was before.
The responses also reflect a growing trend towards professionals in professions such as teaching, banking, nursing or IT investing, rather than The “tech bros” historically associated with the crypto sphereclaiming that such investments had been their best, or only, option for building significant personal wealth.
Many middle-class respondents said they had lost faith in existing systems and turned to crypto in the hopes that it would help them achieve their life goals, such as being able to afford a child, buy a house or travel.
Julian, 57, a designer, landlord and father of four from Nottingham, was one of several respondents who said they had bought Bitcoin to insure against runaway inflation.
“I became increasingly concerned that not only was my savings earning virtually no interest, but the value of every pound I owned was also declining due to quantitative easingwhile the government was happy to print money to bail out the banks,” he says.
Julian decided to invest most of his savings. “Very soon after that the price dropped and I was down 50% for over a year, but I never considered selling because I had done my homework and knew it was worth it. was how it worked,” he says.
After four years of constantly “buying the dip,” his bitcoin stack performed very well.
“I have no plans to sell, and I view this as an inheritance for the children, I’m pretty sure its value will continue to grow. How many bitcoins do I have? Not enough.”
Many armchair investors expressed their hopes that bitcoin could reach record highs of $120,000 or more by the first quarter of 2025.
“If the US adopts bitcoin as a Treasury reserve asset, there are no limits,” says a Dublin lawyer, whose €40,000 investment in bitcoin reached a value of €62,000 per month. last week.
Silas Gunn, 18, from North Yorkshire, shares this confidence. Gunn made his first purchase of bitcoin about three years ago, after hearing about it through YouTube.
“I have invested around £5,000 in crypto and currently have a portfolio of around £95,000,” he says. Gunn hopes this will reach £500,000 by the end of the year. the current four-year bitcoin halving cyclea phenomenon that hugely influences price predictions and trading behavior.
Many in the crypto community are hoping for Trump’s arrival The administration will end the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto industries over the past four years – the use of case-by-case legal action against stakeholders instead of rule-making.
Claire, 50, a nurse from New Zealand who started investing in crypto about 10 years ago, was among many respondents who felt uneasy about benefiting from Trump’s election victory. Trump.
“Trump’s re-election led to a pretty significant increase in my wealth. I feel a little guilty, like it’s almost dirty money,” she says.
Although Claire believes in cryptography as a philosophical project of decentralized reorganization and has still confident about her success, she plans to cash out soon.
“I had fun with it. I really need to be a little more sensible now and maybe I could buy some real estate instead,” she says.
According to Claire, the average crypto investor has changed over time. “It’s surprising how many doctors and nurses are investing in crypto. That’s because it would be difficult to make that much money otherwise today.”
While thousands of amateur investors like Claire have reaped considerable rewards in the crypto sphere, others have only lost money.
Mark, a children’s cycling instructor from the north of England, started buying cryptocurrencies in 2013. “The gradual acceptance of bitcoin by the mainstream financial world has increased my confidence in it,” he says.
“But I made countless stupid mistakes, had cryptocurrencies stolen, lost faith in bitcoin and sold it, then bought it back at a higher price. I tried to trade and failed miserably. Since 2017, I’ve been letting go and it’s the best financial decision I’ve ever made.
Many respondents believe that a thorough understanding of blockchain technology and the crypto market is essential for successful investing. Others attributed their crypto riches to “nothing but stupid luck.”
Mitchell, a Minnesota native in his 30s and earning $100,000 a year in the tech industry, acquired 16,000 Dogecoin – touted by Elon Musk as the “people’s crypto” – for $1,300 between 2021 and 2022. It is currently worth around $6,000.
“I thought if it ever got to $100 a piece, it would be an easy million,” he says. “Understanding crypto better now, I know Dogecoin will almost certainly never reach these heights.”
In December 2023, after seeing real estate prices rise faster than he could save, Mitchell took “a desperate gamble,” he says, and bought a single bitcoin for $42,000. In just under a year, that investment more than doubled to $90,000.
Mitchell now fears a “massive” crypto crash in the near future, but has decided not to sell for now.
“I guess I continue on this path in hopes that the analysts predicting a $100,000 figure for Bitcoin by the end of 2025 are right, even though the most important thing I learned over the course of the last four years is that no one is making these assumptions has any idea what they are talking about,” he says.
“If they’re right, maybe I can finally afford this house.”