Peter McCormack deposited £5,000 into digital currencies in 2017 at a time when Bitcoins were about $600 – but it soon swelled to $20,000 before the bubble burst and he lost everything
A cryptocurrency investor who lost almost £1million in Bitcoin says he has no regrets about losing his cash.
Peter McCormack, 42, started investing before the digital currency gained mass attention in the media.
Its boom saw the crypto surge spectacularly in price before the bubble burst and it crashed completely in January 2018.
Mr McCormack, a former advertising executive, deposited £5,000 into digital currencies in 2017 at a time when Bitcoins were about $600.
He purchased seven or eight and spent the rest on other cryptocurrencies. Before this, he had dabbled a little bit in Bitcoin in 2013 and “lost some money”.
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But Mr McCormack admitted he soon “became hooked” on investing and ended up putting in £23,000 all-in-all.
By the middle of spring 2017, his investment had risen to about $300,000, and by the summer it was at half a million.
It didn’t stop there, and soon Mr McCormack began dreaming of making £5million to buy his local football club, Bedford Town.
He reckoned he could get there within six months if Bitcoin continued to swell at the same pace – but sadly, it didn’t.
The cryptocurrency soared to almost $20,000 by the end of 2017 and Mr McCormack admits this is when he “got a little out of control”.
“My portfolio had ballooned to about $1.2million,” Mr McCormack told The Guardian.
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“By this time I was travelling the world doing interviews for my podcast, taking friends out to expensive restaurants and buying extravagant gifts for my family.
“I am not the kind of person who puts everything away for the future, and though I donated £6,000 to my local hospital, much of my spending was quite frivolous.”
But by the end of January 2018, the Bitcoin bubble burst had well and truly burst – and its value was sent tumbling.
Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile, which means they are prone to fluctuate over time.
This means if you choose to invest, you should be prepared to see your money go down, as well as potentially go up.
You should always do your research first and be aware of the risks before investing in any cryptocurrency.
Before its mammoth crash in early 2018, Mr McCormack said there had been a few drops in Bitcoin during 2017 but it had bounced back.
“I was not too worried,” admits Mr McCormack.
“But over the rest of the year, I watched it sink lower and lower, along with the other cryptocurrencies I had invested in.
“All the time [I was] thinking: Well, there’s no point selling now…”
started investing in crypto back in 2013 where he “lost some money”
Yet despite his experience, Mr McCormack says he doesn’t regret a thing, because during this time he began the What Bitcoin Did Podcast.
He has also separately told the Financial Times that he continues to put personal and business profits into the cryptocurrency, which he plans on holding over the years.
Mr McCormack hasn’t specifically said how much he has put in, or how his investment is performing.
Investing in cryptocurrencies is not a guaranteed way to make money as it fluctuates so wildly.
Bitcoin is currently at its lowest level in six weeks, trading at $55,460.96 today, according to CoinDesk data.
It had reached an all-time high of nearly $69,000 earlier this month.
Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is also only regulated in the UK for money laundering purposes.
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