This past June news.Bitcoin.com reported on the entrepreneur, Erik Finman, who became a bitcoin millionaire at 18 years old. However, Finman became well known before making his first million when he put $1000 into bitcoin in May of 2011 that later turned out to be a really good investment.
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Finman’s investment grew to be worth over $100,000, and he was able to create his own startup. He later sold the company in 2015 for 300 BTC when bitcoin was roughly $200 per coin. This June Finman said he day traded his bitcoins and gathered a total of 403 bitcoins, and when the price hit $2,710 per BTC, he was a millionaire.
This week Finman has had some words for Jamie Dimon the CEO of JP Morgan for calling ordinary bitcoin investors “stupid.” Because of Dimon’s derogatory remarks against bitcoin, the 18-year old entrepreneur has been asking Jamie Dimon to join him in a boxing match to raise money for the natural disaster victims in Puerto Rico. Finman chatted with news.Bitcoin.com about his beef with Dimon, and he tells us it’s pretty ironic a Wall Street type who is accused of so many financial crimes is calling bitcoin a “fraud.” Among other subject’s Finman also tells us his thoughts about bitcoin’s current price and what he thinks the value might be in the future.
Meet Erik Finman the Eighteen Year-old Bitcoin Millionaire
Bitcoin.com (BC): We recently covered a story on you becoming a bitcoin millionaire when BTC hit $2,700 a coin. Are you still holding all those bitcoins?
Erik Finman (EF): Yeah I still have them, I sold a couple last week, but I have around 401 bitcoins which are making me pretty happy. I have some other money in crypto as well like the traditional altcoins such as ethereum, litecoin, and I have some money in some ICOs as well.
BC: Does the recent increase in regulations scare you being a bitcoin investor?
EF: Regulations I think that’s what bitcoin was made for, I mean China effectively banned exchanges, and BTC took a temporary price drop and then kept going up. I mean that’s the purpose of bitcoin. I remember when I was very young my brother and I were familiar with the Liberty Dollar. It was kind of a currency alternative to the USD, and it was centralized obviously. The creator had to go to jail and had lots of legal troubles, and that’s why we originally got interested in bitcoin.
Even if every country bans it it can still exist because of the technology’s decentralization aspects. I’d prefer it not to be regulated but if the U.S. banned it tomorrow obviously the price would go down in the short term but the purpose of bitcoin is for it to exist in these worlds where regulation gets tighter.
BC: You have been pretty vocal against statements made by Jamie Dimon lately. Even challenging him to a boxing match to help people in Puerto Rico. What made you say these things?
EF: It’s the richest thing ever coming from a Wall Street CEO criticizing average bitcoin users. I was in an Uber vehicle the other day, and the Uber driver used bitcoin, and this CEO calls bitcoin users criminals and fraudsters, and I thought he said some pretty ironic statements coming from the JP Morgan boss. I shared an article yesterday that details all the suspected criminal elements and financial fraud that Jamie Dimon’s company is accused of so I thought his statements against bitcoin users were pretty obnoxious. The market keeps going up and up as he keeps criticizing it. Then he says he’s not going to talk about bitcoin anymore, and the next day he proceeds to talk about bitcoin — I mean that’s a symptom of dementia.
If Jamie can’t predict when he’s gonna shut his own mouth about bitcoin how can he predict that it will fail? So I said Jamie Dimon why don’t you try being a good person for once and join me in the ring. I’ll take it easy on you, and I won’t knock you out with one punch, and I’ll personally donate a hundred thousand dollars to Puerto Rico if he’d join me in the ring. He can donate money, but he doesn’t have to as it seems like he’s not a very good person.
We could sell tickets to it and donate all the proceeds to Puerto Rico, but I don’t think Dimon will do it — I think he’s too weak. When you think of Wall Street scum bag people think of individuals like Jamie Dimon. He’s the epitome of Wall Street scum bag.
BC: A few big-name Wall Street types are embracing bitcoin. What do you think about traditional bankers who approve of bitcoin?
EF: I think they are smart some of these Wall Street people, but you gotta be careful because they might be embracing it like the Chinese government embraces bitcoin. I think some are praising the technology and not bitcoin — they wanna use ‘blockchain’ and innovate with that. They want to make things more efficient keeping some middlemen here and there. But yeah I think Wall Street needs to embrace bitcoin but in the long run, I think they will be weakened by it, and they may become irrelevant by it if they don’t.
BC: You bought bitcoin at a young age during the early years when the price was very cheap. With the price of bitcoin at around $5500, what would you say to a young person who was your age that wants to invest in BTC at the price it is today?
EF: If someone had some money to invest I would say that I think bitcoin will go up to more than this price eventually. There could be a little bit of risk putting it in now because of some of the drops but with all these people who ask me — Should I buy bitcoin right now? I say there is a chance it the price could drop but when it’s worth a lot more one day will a $500-800 dollar drop really be a deciding factor if it continues to go up
I think it’s going up, and it will be worth more than it is today, but I’m not saying it won’t drop $500 or $1000 dollars tomorrow. I’m saying that if it does, in the long run, it won’t be too big of a deal.
BC: This week on Twitter you said: “Money wasn’t meant to just sit in a bank. If you’re not investing it, you’re wasting it. Your money is your army, give them marching orders.” What did that statement mean?
EF: I think people should make their money make money. Of course, I think having a savings is good and having a rainy day fund is fine. But I think having 10 percent of your income in an investment is smart, and you gotta give your money marching orders. Even a high-interest savings account is better than money just sitting. And of course putting it into bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is a significant investment.
BC: Where do you see bitcoin in the next 2-5 years price wise?
In two to five years, I see the price around $10,000+.
What do you think about Erik’s statements about challenging Jamie Dimon in the ring? Do you think Dimon would accept? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, and Twitter.
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