Illinois state lottery winner reveals that he used half of the sum he won to invest in Bitcoin. Reddit user “Joxnlol” posted an image of himself holding the lottery check with the caption: “Did this. Then put half into BTC in May. Remind me in 8 months if I f****d up.”
Lottery winner invests in Bitcoin: Bitcoin price increased by 64%
Joxnlol won half a million dollars through the lottery and transferred half of it in May this year. Since his investment, the price of Bitcoin has been rising steadily and shows an increase of over 60 percent (63.71%). In a subsequent Reddit post, he revealed his plans of Hodling Bitcoin.
He revealed that he would be holding onto his Bitcoin for at least one year. He stated that he had stored money for emergencies personal use and other luxuries in cash. The only purchases made through the lottery amount were a new car, and he put a down payment for a house.
Joxnlol’s 500,000 dollars were reduced to 357,000 after government taxes meaning that he invested nearly 180,000 dollars in Bitcoin. His post received several kinds of feedback, the most important one noting that he has put himself in danger of being a target of criminals by revealing his investments.
Other thread contributors said that even if he had “f****d up” he had still hedged the funds and would not lose all of his winning funds. Joxnlol revealed that he had trusted a third-party app Robinhood to hold his Bitcoins. He claimed that security provided by a centralized third-party would be significantly higher than cold storage, and he himself would feel safer.
The thread was even linked to on Twitter by user @BashCo, who commented that Bitcoin is sound money, yet it is associated with lottery. He then wondered if the common man thinks of Bitcoin as a lottery or as a currency.