I lost half a million pounds on Bitcoin

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Trading BITCOIN comes with a lot of risks, which a buyer discovered the hard way – comparing cryptocurrency to gambling.

The anonymous trader is said to have lost half a million pounds and had to borrow thousands from friends and family.

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Investing in bitcoin is always a risk, which sometimes tragically does not pay offCredit: Alamy

They are now calling on others to recognize the dangers themselves, before it is too late.

The thing with Bitcoin is that it is unpredictable.

If you are investing, you should be careful with the volatile nature of cryptocurrency.

Its value can fluctuate from day to day, so you don’t know what you have in your virtual wallet will be worth in the days to come.

This means that you can just as easily lose money as you would earn – and you could lose all of your money.

This trader learned this the hard way, revealing that he lost around £ 495,000 in bitcoin after betting on cryptocurrency contracts, Vice reports.

They are not the only ones who lose real money after investing in virtual currency.

There is even a specialist rehabilitation clinic in Scotland that treats cryptocurrency addiction as it poses a major problem for the health and financial stability of Britons.

The main cryptocurrency was first launched in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the price exploded.

The user who lost half a million, however, said, “Back then, bitcoin was everywhere.

“People were talking about cryptocurrency at work, while major newspapers ran articles with exciting headlines proclaiming cryptocurrency making everyone ‘hilariously rich’.”

They initially deposited around £ 35,000 of their savings and were initially successful at £ 14,000.

“When you win big once, you think you can start over,” they said.

But when Bitcoin massively lost value in a 2018 crash, things started to take a turn for the worse and riskier deals were put on the table.

Around this time, some offshore cryptocurrency exchanges started offering their users the ability to trade Bitcoin derivatives – which are contracts that traders can enter into and then allow them to bet on the future price of Bitcoin.

But they come with few restrictions because even inexperienced traders can take out high risk or high reward contracts.

It didn’t take long for the hapless trader to lose everything.

A single bet on a short-term Bitcoin price move wiped them out, and on top of that, a new set of bad trades and inexperience saw an additional £ 18,000 disappear.

They said: “At the end of the day, the type of trading I was doing was just gambling. The exchanges don’t feel obligated to protect their clients. I finally quit in late 2020, when they blocked my accounts.”

But by that time, just over £ 123,800 in deposits had been lost with no way to recoup the losses.

With luck, investors may see their fortunes grow by investing in cryptocurrency, but this is never guaranteed.

Just like this trader, many others are losing their money as well.

Experts have weighed in on Bitcoin’s security in the past.

Money saving expert Martin Lewis has previously warned of how easily it can be lost.

He said: “Like gold, it can be stolen, and cryptocurrency is kind of like the equivalent of gold because it’s a store of value for what people put in. You have to be very careful.”

The currency is also unregulated, which means that if something goes wrong, you have no way to file a complaint or be compensated for the money lost.

Cryptocurrencies themselves are only regulated in the UK for the purposes of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

What is cryptocurrency?

CRYPTO-CURRENCIES are a form of payment that can be exchanged for goods and services.

They operate using a technology called blockchain.

Blockchain is a decentralized technology distributed over computers that manages and records transactions. Learn more about cryptocurrencies below.

British bitcoin expert Layah Heilpern gives crypto advice to his followers on TikTok

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