Erik Finman turned his grandmother’s $1,000 gift into cryptocurrency gold. At twelve, he bought 103 bitcoins for roughly $12 each—a move that seemed risky at the time. Fast forward to 2017, and Bitcoin’s price surge made him a millionaire at seventeen. The kid who made a deal with his parents to skip college if he hit seven figures actually pulled it off. His story mirrors other early crypto investors who struck it rich, and there’s more to uncover about his unconventional path.
At twelve years old, most kids are begging their parents for video games or the latest sneakers. Erik Finman had different plans. In May 2011, he took his grandmother’s $1,000 gift and dumped it into Bitcoin when the cryptocurrency was trading around $12 per coin. While his friends were probably playing Call of Duty, Finman was accumulating roughly 103 bitcoins.
The kid wasn’t just throwing money at internet coins for kicks. He struck a deal with his parents that would make any teenager jealous: if he became a millionaire by age 18, he could skip college entirely. No SATs, no student loans, no dorm room drama. Just pure, unadulterated rebellion against the traditional education system.
Finman’s timing was, frankly, incredible. By 2017, Bitcoin’s price had exploded from his initial $12 entry point to over $2,700. His holdings had grown to 403 bitcoins, pushing his net worth well past the million-dollar mark. He won the bet at 17, a full year early. Bitcoin’s appeal as an investment vehicle has only grown since then, with its fixed supply cap making it increasingly attractive as a hedge against inflation.
The success story gets weirder when you consider Finman’s educational philosophy. He doesn’t have a GED and openly criticizes traditional schooling, preferring YouTube and Wikipedia over textbooks. His approach was simple: learn practical business skills, write emails instead of essays, and skip the institutional nonsense entirely. A teacher once told him he had low future potential, which only strengthened his resolve to pursue entrepreneurial goals.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Finman didn’t just cash out and buy a mansion. He leveraged his cryptocurrency windfall into legitimate ventures, including collaboration with NASA through their Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program. The kid who rejected formal education ended up promoting STEM fields to other students. He even started an education company called Botangle from his bedroom, proving that his entrepreneurial instincts extended beyond cryptocurrency speculation.
His story mirrors other Bitcoin millionaires like Javed Khan and Kingsley Advani, who also capitalized on cryptocurrency’s early, volatile years. Khan used Bitcoin for money transfers before accumulating serious holdings, while Advani invested heavily in mid-2017 and became a millionaire within months.
The irony is thick. A twelve-year-old’s grandmother inadvertently funded one of the most successful anti-establishment bets in recent memory. Traditional education advocates probably aren’t thrilled about Finman’s success, but his million-dollar gamble paid off spectacularly.
