When the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin in 2008, his goal was to democratize financial control. In this new world, everyone could partake in a decentralized financial system.
More than a decade later, there are now over 18,000 cryptocurrencies in existence. Also, other technologies are being built on and powered by the blockchain. From all indications, crypto’s popularity is not waning any time soon. For the most part, a lot of people are in crypto because of the opportunities it presents to make money. There’s a lot to navigate, but participating in crypto is potentially rewarding.
I have a thing for firsts, so for our third episode of this people-centred series, I asked members of our community to share how they made and used their first crypto profit.
Read what they said below:
Williams, 23
Like most people, I also invested in crypto for the first time in 2020. You couldn’t escape the chatter about how crypto, especially about how Bitcoin was the next big thing. I mean, I thought they were on to something because I took a quick glance at Bitcoin’s price history over the years and found out that compared to the previous years, it was doing really well.
Although I wasn’t even sure that I was going to make any profit, I decided to go in. I was also just starting out as a graphic designer at the time and didn’t have much liquid cash, but I decided to take the risk. In April 2020, I linvested ₦70k ($140) in Bitcoin and kept it moving. The plan was simple: I’d hold for as long as I could. It was all I could do, anyway, because I didn’t know how to trade.
By February of 2021, my portfolio had grown to about ₦400k ($800). That was a huge moment for me. I had basically 5x my initial investment without doing much. Now, I had a decision to make — leave it there for much longer or take out my profit. I chose the latter.
Remember I said that I was just starting out as a graphic designer? I used half of the money to invest in gadgets I needed for work and that was fulfilling.
The other half? Now, I’m not sure how it happened, but I blew it. It didn’t even take up to three weeks before I was back to zero. But hey, at least I bought things I needed for work that improved my quality of life.
But sometimes, I sit and wonder what could have been if I had re-invested the half I blew away. I guess we’ll never know.
Nnamdi, 26
It was 2020, and crypto was in a bull market. The thing about moments like this is that everyone feels like a genius. You could invest in a crypto asset on vibes and your call would be spot on. And that’s exactly what I did.
I remember reading something about Litecoin (LTC), and it just felt right. I invested ₦35k ($70) of my money into it, which was enough to buy me 2 LTC. Then I did what everyone else did at the time — I waited. Sure enough, the coin started pumping. When the value hit ₦40k ($80), I started selling it off. I still have no idea why I did that.
However, I recognised that there was still an opportunity there, so I bought some more LTC, and this did well too. Within a few weeks, the value of my investment had climbed up to about ₦120k ($240). This was when I decided to take my profit, and it was the right time too. I had just moved to a new apartment and was in the process of furnishing my space. The profit I made from holding LTC was enough to buy me a TV. No regrets there.
However, if I could do things differently, I would have bought more LTC. I held about 3.5–4 LTC then. In retrospect, I should have gotten at least 10 LTC.
Abdul, 20
I started investing in Bitcoin in 2018 and made little gains here and there. But nothing major happened until 2020. I decided to go bigger because I started making money from a new job.
Luckily for me, the value of Bitcoin dropped to about $5k in March 2020 and I took the opportunity. I took out ₦100k ($170) from my savings and bought Bitcoin.
The value of Bitcoin consistently went up after I bought it, and I continued to buy more. Out of the initial profit I made, I also bought one Ether — its price was less than $200 at the time. Fast forward to September 2020, I sold all my Bitcoin and made my first million naira from crypto. The plan was to use the profit to make more money, so I redirected it to stock investments.
But I also made a decision I didn’t think through.
Remember the Ether I bought a few months prior? I should have used some of my profit to buy more, but I didn’t. I sold all the Ether I had shortly after it reached an all-time high of $220. Less than a year later, Ether’s value would rise to $4k. This mistake still bothers me sometimes.
However, I’m not losing sleep over it anymore because there will always be other opportunities to make money.
Steph, 28
In August 2020, I had to make a decision between investing in the stock market or the crypto market. Ultimately, I went for crypto because of the market performance and everything seemed fun. I also wanted to go in for the long haul, and crypto seemed more rewarding.
On my search for hidden gems, I found out about Digibyte and Safemoon and split $20 between both projects. Over the next couple of months, I was also using Dollar-cost averaging to top up my investments. By April 2021, my portfolio had grown to about $600.
I took $100 out to invest in another project — Hex — during their Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The project hasn’t been launched yet, but I’m hoping to receive some airdrops when it finally does. Hopefully, I should make some money off that.
Joseph (Age unknown)
I went the airdrops route when I first got into crypto, and that’s where I made my first profit from. How did it happen? I carried out a task and as a reward, I was given 1000 units of a token — I’m not sure I remember the name anymore. At the time, the value of the tokens was worth only $2.4. Two weeks later, it became$157. This was enough to convince me about the opportunities in crypto.
What did I do with my profits though? Well, I changed my phone. On the surface, it may seem like an unnecessary purchase, but it wasn’t. I wanted a faster phone that could help in my hunt for more airdrops. That was it.
I’ve earned more money from crypto between then and now, and I have re-invested most of it into my business. That’s also working for me.
