Student who invested $27 in Bitcoin for a school project returns years later to a jaw-dropping fortune
Published on Feb 26, 2026 at 4:44 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Feb 26, 2026 at 4:44 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A student who invested $27 in Bitcoin for a school project should be thanking his lucky stars after he went back to it years later and discovered he was rich.
What started as a simple classroom assignment turned into one of the most unbelievable crypto upgrades ever.
At the time, it was little more than a curious experiment with a brand-new digital currency that hardly anyone understood.
Fast forward a few years, and that tiny investment had snowballed into a life-changing amount of money.
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He invested $27 in Bitcoin for a school project
Back in 2009, Norwegian student Kristoffer Koch came across Bitcoin while researching cryptocurrency for a university project.
Intrigued by the concept outlined in the original Bitcoin white paper, he decided to put his money where his research was and spent around 150 Norwegian kroner, roughly $27, on 5,000 Bitcoin.
At the time, Bitcoin was worth next to nothing, and the purchase felt more like a tech experiment than a smart financial decision.
After completing his assignment, Koch essentially forgot all about the digital limited edition coins.
They sat untouched in his online wallet while he got on with life, completely unaware that he was sitting on what would eventually become a small fortune.
He now has a jaw-dropping fortune
Years later, when Bitcoin began making headlines for its dramatic price surges, Koch suddenly remembered his long-lost stash.
After managing to recover access to his bitcoin wallet, he logged in and could hardly believe what he was seeing.
His original $27 investment had exploded in value to around $886,000.
The discovery was so surreal that he initially thought there must be some kind of mistake, but it was very real.
Koch ended up selling a portion of his holdings, paid the necessary taxes, and used some of the money to buy himself an apartment in Oslo.
The wildest part is that if he had held on to all 5,000 Bitcoin until later peaks in the market, that original $27 could have been worth hundreds of millions.
From school project to jaw-dropping fortune, sometimes tiny risks can lead to massive rewards.
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As a Content Writer since January 2025, Daisy’s focus is on writing stories on topics spanning the entirety of the website. As well as writing about EVs, the history of cars, tech, and celebrities, Daisy is always the first to pitch the seed of an idea to the audience editor team, who collab with her to transform it into a fully informative and engaging story.
