Reddit Roasts $500k Lottery Winner Who Invested Half in Bitcoin

An Illinois man who won the lottery earlier this year has invested half of his winnings into bitcoin. The man who posted the score via Reddit confirmed on Monday that he had purchased roughly $178,000 worth of BTC back in May. He also challenged readers to remind him in eight months if the investment was a good one, presumably in relation to the bitcoin price. Reddit had other ideas, of course.

Going by the handle Joxnlol, the man explained that he first had to fork over $143,000 in taxes to the state. While half of his $357,000 in net winnings went into a year-long bitcoin investment, the other half was directed at various other real-world needs: “That’s the plan, I don’t intend to touch any of it for at least another year. I set aside money for emergencies, for myself, and for tattoos… I paid off my old car, set up an agreement to sell it to my friend. Bought a new car and put a down payment on a house.”

In contrast to Joxnlol’s forthcoming lottery post, Reddit quickly jumped on the troll bus. Some claimed that the post was fake news, while a larger number of other posters tore into the lucky scratch card winner for revealing too much about his identity. The result was a slew of comments claiming that it only takes a $5 wrench to track him down and relieve him of his winnings.

Reddit was also not impressed with Joxnlol’s decision to buy bitcoin using stock trading app Robinhood. The fintech startup, which was valued at $7.6 billion earlier this year, does not allow users to transfer crypto. According to Joxnlol, it also takes Robinhood a “scary” week and a half to cash you out of any bitcoin position. That dodgy policy led critics to reiterate that old crypto adage: “not your keys, not your crypto.”