Four ordinary people, including a NYC surrogate teacher, talk about how they got rich by investing in cryptocurrencies. All were once average workers with regular jobs and modest salaries. Now, they talk about how they became millionaires by taking advantage of the small sums of their salaries and the opportunities they seized.
Rachel Siegel: Substitute teacher becomes a cryptocurrency millionaire
When Rachel Siegel was a substitute public school teacher in New York, she lived in a dark apartment with each window facing a brick wall. Now she sees the sun and the sea, thanks to a newly purchased lavish condo in the Caribbean where Siegel can enjoy panoramic views of the ocean from her private balcony. His journey began in late 2017 when a friend invited him to an after party of the cryptocurrency conference. Siegel describes those days as follows:
I remember walking into a room full of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and I’ve never been in a room with so many passionate, driven people, and people I usually didn’t think were about to lose all their money.
That’s when 29-year-old Siegel shares that he decided on his first crypto investment and spent $25 from his salary for his future:
To be honest, I had nothing when I started cryptocurrency. I was just a substitute teacher with a really big idea.
Although Siegel declined to give an exact figure, his investments yielded seven-figure profits. While it may not be enough to change his spending habits, he says it’s much more than just the money he has:
I don’t buy big, flashy things. I’m not one of those people with fancy cars or new Rolexes. But now I can own a home. Years ago I used to look at home prices and thought it was totally unrealistic.
Siegel hasn’t moved to her new beach retreat yet as the deal has expired, but she did splurge on a trip to Dubai with first class travel on the Emirates:
It was the most generous experience of my life.
And he says he quit teaching:
It was scary to leave this income stream at first. But there are so many opportunities in this field.
Now, Siegel says he works full-time as a cryptocurrency phenom under the pseudonym CryptoFinally:
The great thing about cryptocurrency is that anyone can do it, and I’m one of those who does. I was a substitute teacher without serious technical knowledge who went to university for theater and earned millions of dollars in this market with faith and education. I believe that everyone can follow this path if they are committed to this path.
Here are the 9 most talked about altcoin projects on Twitter this week. Details are on Kriptokoin.com.
Kane Ellis: Young tech worker owns Maserati
In 2011, Kane Ellis was an 18-year-old high school dropout working in IT when he learned how to mine cryptocurrencies. All this time he continued to work in his day job. He said he only earned four Bitcoins a day when he started, then worth about $8:
I got into this from the back end of things, not from the investment side. I just realized that my computer can generate income for me. When I was 18, I thought this was great for profit, but after about six months, I realized that this could be the future.
He remembered once paying for a meal at McDonald’s with four Bitcoins. If he had held those coins, it would be worth $150,000 today. Ellis, now 29, co-founded CarSwap, an online marketplace for car buyers and sellers. And he keeps most of his money in crypto:
Cryptocurrencies helped me live a better life so I could start my own business and I was able to live the life I’ve always dreamed of.
He shares that he uses his profits to buy exotic cars, including his prize ride:
Maserati GranTurismo. The plate jokingly says BANKRUPT. As a car guy, getting my dream car like the Maserati MC Sportline at the age of 24 was a huge success.
Kane Ellis’ advice to investors:
Hold your Bitcoins. Don’t think it’s a short-term investment because it is realistically a long-term investment. Two, five, ten years.
Terrance Leonard: navy man with a dream house
Terrance Leonard was first introduced to cryptocurrencies in 2013 while working as a software engineer. However, things did not go well. The 32-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy says:
I’m a big nerd so it was an interesting thing for me. But it was very difficult back then. It was like the Wild West. There was not much information and I was worried that I would lose all my money.
Thus, Leonard withdrew from the industry until 2019, when a crypto-savvy colleague announced the ins and outs of the market at lunch. That’s when he decided to come back with a $2,000 purchase. Since then, he has invested tens of thousands of dollars, primarily in Ethereum and some smaller cryptocurrencies such as Unibright, and his stake has reached one million:
It puts me on a path towards financial freedom.
He recently exchanged some of his cryptocurrencies to pay the down payment on a four-bedroom house in Washington DC. His new digs include a detached garage and extra courtyard space for his dog Roman. Living on his own, Leonard plans to retire from full-time work this year:
The young me would be wildly excited—even ecstatic—to see where I am now. I was a geek, geeky kid who was into computers, and being able to use those skills to build wealth was incredible.
Lea Thompson: Tech worker turned into a cryptocurrency phenomenon
Seattle-based Lea Thompson first heard about crypto when she visited a friend who was mining:
I would go to his apartment and see all this computer equipment and think, ‘What is this weird thing you’re doing?’
Couldn’t connect to the Blockchain world until 2017. Despite having a sales job in the tech industry, Thompson never thought he was making enough money, so he took a few “side jobs”. It involved a gig and blogging for a platform that pays itself in cryptocurrency:
I started meeting more people working in the industry and saw their excitement for the potential of this industry that really inspired me.
Thompson also started investing, putting $500 to $1,000 a month in Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases, gradually gaining wealth and nearly 200,000 social media followers. He declined to say how much his stock is worth today, but Bitcoin has quadrupled since buying most of his savings. His profit was enough for Thompson to quit his tech business and become a full-time crypto content producer. Under the pseudonym Girl Gone Crypto, she happily shares that she’s now releasing “fun educational” videos about cryptocurrencies and Blockchain:
I felt much safer to quit my secure day job and spend my energy right now in a way that felt truly limitless. Crypto has completely changed my life. It was really nice to be able to afford luxuries like a weekly massage.
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