Australian crypto miner Joe Bridge recently explained how he was able to buy his first house, boats, and motorcycles using the small fortune he amassed from crypto mining.

According to a report by Australia’s ABC published on June 30, the 38-year-old first became involved in crypto mining in 2013 while living with his parents in Brisbane. At the time, Bridge was studying law and had little education in IT. However, he was able to run the mining software on three computers — using 10 graphics cards — to earn Litecoin and Dogecoin. 

Bridge says the mining caused the temperature of his house to spike to 50 degrees Celsius at times, while his power bill topped $600 a month, even with the use of a “fairly advanced solar system” on the roof. Bridge was able to trade the mined $LTC and $DOGE for over a dozen bitcoins.

Bridge held onto his $BTC for four years, hardly paying attention to the price until it began to skyrocket in mid 2017. He decided to sell a portion of his $BTC holdings for the purchase of several motorcycles and boats, while betting that the price would continue to rise. 

Bridge said he was looking to buy a home around the time Bitcoin’s price peaked in November 2021. He ended up selling 85% of his holdings — around 11 bitcoins — at AUD 80,000 each, for a total of AUD 880,000, to buy the home mortgage-free. He also sold off several $BTC in order to pay for the capital gains taxes on his investment, which he estimated to be aroundAUD 290,000. 

Bridge now works in IT for a finance software company, and attributes his foray into Bitcoin for allowing him to afford a mortgage-free home. Looking back, he said there was a “lot of luck” involved in his journey, and did not necessarily recommend others following in his footsteps. 

He said, 

I think it’s a dangerous time to be getting into it. I would imagine it’s possible [to still make money]. Would I recommend it? No. I’m not currently participating. 

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Featured Image by “lvlaomi” from Pixabay