Daniel semi-retired at age 27 after some fortunate breaks, together with with a single buy he made two years in the past that’s now worth $50 million.A Queenslander who began off working at his native service station for simply $15 per hour is now worth a minimum of $100 million if he cashed out on all his property proper now. Daniel Maegaard, 31, from the Sunshine Coast, used to work the weekend shift at his petrol station whereas finding out psychology at college.But a mix of luck and ability noticed him bump into new expertise crazes similar to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) years earlier than they turned mainstream, permitting him to change into a multi-millionaire in lower than a decade. In reality, one fortunate buy for a CryptoPunk NFT in May 2020 price Mr Maegaard simply $18,000 on the time — and it’s worth has since soared to greater than $50 million for the digital paintings. The jetsetter, who has travelled to greater than 50 international locations, says it began for him when he first heard about Bitcoin in 2013. “Me being me, I used to be procrastinating on my project — I by no means actually needed to be a psychologist anyway,” Mr Maegaard recalled, chatting with information.com.au. “I got here throughout this BBC article speaking concerning the parabolic rise of Bitcoin, it had gone from $20 to $50. “I actually did see the facility in being your personal financial institution, complete management over your cash.”Using his $4000 in financial savings — the one cash he needed to his title — he poured it into cryptocurrency. Mr Maegaard had completed his psychology diploma and was following in his father’s footsteps by finding out regulation when cryptocurrency all of the sudden boomed in 2017. “During 2017 I made sufficient cash to be snug sufficient to stroll away from the whole lot,” he mentioned. He had invested in blockchains together with Bitcoin, PP coin, Lite coin and Ripple XRP.For an thought of his return on funding, Bitcoin’s worth jumped by 1000 per cent whereas Ripple was the very best performing coin of that 12 months, up by a whopping 36,000 per cent in 12 months.“Crypto has a nasty wrap, particularly among the many older era,” he mentioned.He felt the necessity to “show” to his dad and mom and associates that it was a worthwhile path he was happening. “Initially folks had been confused however because the years went on, they realised this was working very properly for me,” he added. Very properly is an understatement. At the start of 2017, Mr Maegaard began off with crypto investments worth $120,000. By April of that 12 months, he had made his first million {dollars}.“I’ve by no means been extra alive in my life, my coronary heart was going, my eyes had been like saucepans, I used to be actually excited,” he recalled. But he sat tight on his crypto portfolio and invested extra. By the top of 2017, that $1 million had ballooned into $20 million.“I timed it completely,” he added. He cashed out half his income — $10 million — and invested the cash into Australian business and residential property. By this level, he had $180,000 in passive earnings flowing into his checking account from tenants. He then booked a one-way ticket to Europe.“I missed my subsequent semester, I by no means went again to uni ever once more,” Mr Maegaard mentioned.For the following 18 months he wandered the world, visiting a minimum of 50 separate international locations. “I sort of bought bored, I assume I semi retired, however I used to be solely 27 on the time,” he mentioned. “In mid-2018, I grounded myself a bit, I wanted to try for one thing slightly extra.“That’s once I began to look into decentralised finance and NFTs, that’s how I re-imagined myself.”The self-made multi-millionaire mentioned he continued to “dabble” in cryptocurrency however turned his consideration to derivatives — the place he made $1 million a 12 months.He additionally began investing early on in NFTs.When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on Australia’s shores in 2020, Mr Maegaard was, like the remainder of us, caught right here with worldwide borders closed. “When the pandemic hit, I dug deeper [into NFTs] as a result of there was nothing to do, not even journey,” he mentioned. “During this time I acquired among the most wanted NFTs.”He purchased one NFT in May 2020 for $18,000 which he likened to “the Mona Lisa of NFTs”.“It’s principally priceless,” he added. He had bought CryptoPunk 8348, or the “seven trait CryptoPunk”, which is effective due to its rarity.CryptoPunks are a NFT assortment on the Ethereum blockchain launched in 2017 by the Larva Labs studio.There are solely 10,000 distinctive CryptoPunk tokens and the artworks are completely “on-chain”, which means no one can alter the code and which additionally means there’ll by no means be greater than 10,000 punks. During 2019 and 2020 he noticed the NFT house being “fairly quiet” however final 12 months it “actually took off”.“We noticed extra quantity in a single month than we noticed within the entirety of 2020,” he defined. Mr Maegaard recollects giving his associates NFTs as birthday and Christmas presents. He gave one individual a $300 CryptoPunk NFT present. She offered it in the beginning of 2021 for $70,000. The worth of the punk artwork work soared to $500,000 on the peak of the craze.Meanwhile, an public sale home approached Mr Maegaard providing greater than $50 million if he was prepared to promote CryptoPunk 8348 to them.“I don’t assume it will have offered for no matter they had been providing,” he added. With more cash than ever, Mr Maegaard has now turned his consideration to a wholly new profession — being a DJ. He has created a helmet to put on whereas DJing that may be a bodily embodiment of his CryptoPunk paintings — see above. Mr Maegaard’s DJ moniker is Seedphrase. In November, he DJed an NFT-themed social gathering the place different crypto and NFT millionaires rubbed shoulders with one another. He’s at present in LA engaged on his ardour for music and has one other gig booked up at a Selfridges trend present in London. “I’m dwelling my greatest life,” he added.Continue the dialog | [email protected] associated subjects:BrisbaneCryptoforex
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/queensland-servo-worker-turns-4k-into-100m-cryptocurrency-nft-empire/news-story/4d2c1a600831111789ddb0ccf2567b32
Queensland NFT, cryptocurrency investor Daniel Maegaard ‘Seedphrase’ now worth $100m
