Student spent $26 on Bitcoin in 2009 and spent weeks trying to remember the password after discovering it was worth a huge amount 4 years later

A Norwegian student who spent just $26 on Bitcoin back in 2009 ended up accidentally setting himself up for life after forgetting all about the purchase for years.

Kristoffer Koch had bought 5,000 Bitcoin while researching encryption for his university thesis, back when the cryptocurrency was worth less than half a cent each.

After hearing Bitcoin suddenly dominating headlines in 2013, he remembered the long-forgotten investment but had no idea what his password was.

When he finally managed to unlock the account after weeks of trying, he discovered the tiny investment had turned into a life-changing fortune worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Student spent $26 on Bitcoin in 2009 and forgot about it for years

Back in 2009, Kristoffer Koch was a 22-year-old student in Norway studying encryption and digital privacy, and he decided to risk $26 on crypto, more specifically bitcoin as a little experiment.

Curious about the technology, Koch spent 150 Norwegian kroner, roughly $26.60, to buy 5,000 Bitcoin.

At the time, each coin was worth less than half a cent, meaning the purchase seemed more like a small experiment than a serious investment.

Then life moved on, and he completely forgot about it, but four years later, in April 2013, the cryptocurrency suddenly exploded into mainstream headlines after the price surged past $100 per coin.

That was when Koch vaguely remembered he might still own some Bitcoin somewhere.

There was just one problem – he could not remember the password needed to access the Bitcoin wallet.

His investment became large enough to buy an apartment in Oslo

Koch reportedly spent weeks trying to regain access to the wallet before finally cracking the password.

When the account finally opened, he could hardly believe what he was seeing – the 5,000 BTC he bought for less than $30 had ballooned in value to around $886,000.

“It said I had 5,000 Bitcoin and I just thought, ‘Oh wow’,” Koch later told reporters.

He decided to sell one fifth of the coins, cashing out 1,000 BTC for roughly $177,000.

The money was enough for him to buy an apartment in Toyen, one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Oslo.

Remarkably, he kept the remaining 4,000 BTC, and if he still holds it, the original $26.60 investment would now reportedly be worth more than $450 million, making it one of the most famous early Bitcoin success stories ever.