A Queenslander who started working at his local service station for just AU$15 ($15.72) an hour is now worth at least AU$100 million if he cashed in all his assets right now.
Daniel Maegaard, 31, from the Sunshine Coast, used to work the weekend shift at his gas station while studying psychology at university.
But a combination of luck and skill saw him stumble upon new tech fads like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) years before they became mainstream, allowing him to become a billionaire in less than a week. decade.
In fact, a lucky purchase of a CryptoPunk NFT in May 2020 cost Maegaard just AU$18,000 at the time, and its value has since skyrocketed to over AU$50 million for the digital artwork.
The jetsetter, who has traveled to more than 50 countries, says it all started for him when he first heard about Bitcoin in 2013.
โBeing me, I was procrastinating โ I never wanted to be a psychologist anyway,โ Maegaard recalled, speaking to news.com.au.
โI came across this BBC article talking about the parabolic rise of Bitcoin, it had gone from A$20 to A$50.
"I really saw the power of being your own bank, full control over your money."
Using his A$4000 in savings, the only money he had to his name, he invested it in cryptocurrencies.
Maegaard had finished his psychology degree and was following in his father's footsteps by studying law when cryptocurrencies suddenly exploded in 2017.
โDuring 2017 I made enough money to feel comfortable enough to walk away from it all,โ he said.
He had invested in blockchains including Bitcoin, PP coin, Lite coin, and Ripple XRP.
To get an idea of โโtheir return on investment, the value of Bitcoin increased by 1000 percent, while Ripple was the best performing coin that year, up 36,000 percent in 12 months.
"Crypto has a bad reputation, especially among the older generation," he said.
He felt the need to "prove" to his parents and friends that the path he was following was worth it.
"At first, people were confused, but as the years went by, they realized that this worked very well for me," he added.
Very good is an understatement.
In early 2017, Maegaard started with A$120,000 worth of cryptocurrency investments. By April of that year, he had earned his first million dollars.
"I have never been more alive in my life, my heart was beating, my eyes were like saucepans, I was very excited," he recalled.
But he stuck to his crypto portfolio and invested more. By the end of 2017, that AU$1 million had ballooned to AU$20 million.
"I timed it perfectly," he added.
He cashed out half of his winnings (A$10 million) and invested the money in Australian commercial and residential properties.
At this point, he had A$180,000 in passive income coming into his bank account from tenants.
He then booked a one-way ticket to Europe.
"I missed the next semester, I never went back to college," Maegaard said.
For the next 18 months he wandered the world, visiting at least 50 different countries.
"I got a bit bored, I guess I was half-retired, but I was only 27 at the time," he said.
"In the middle of 2018, I was a little grounded, I needed to push myself for something a little more.
"That's when I started looking into decentralized finance and NFTs, that's how I reinvented myself."
The self-made billionaire said he continued to "dabble" in cryptocurrencies, but turned his attention to derivatives, where he earned A$1 million a year.
It also started investing early on in NFTs.
When the covid-19 pandemic hit Australia's shores in 2020, Maegaard, like the rest of us, was stuck here with international borders closed.
"When the pandemic hit, I dug deeper [into NFTs] because there was nothing to do, not even travel," he said.
"During this time, I acquired some of the most sought after NFTs."
He bought an NFT in May 2020 for A$18,000, which he likened to "the Mona Lisa of NFTs."
"It's basically priceless," he added.
He had bought CryptoPunk 8348, or the "Seven Traits CryptoPunk", which is valuable due to its rarity.
CryptoPunks is a collection of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain launched in 2017 by the Larva Labs studio.
There are only 10,000 unique CryptoPunk tokens and the artwork is completely "on-chain" which means no one can alter the code and which also means there will never be more than 10,000 punks.
During 2019 and 2020 he noted that the NFT space was "pretty quiet", but last year it "really took off".
"We saw more volume in one month than in all of 2020," he explained.
Maegaard remembers giving NFTs to her friends as birthday and Christmas gifts.
He gave a person a CryptoPunk NFT gift of A$300. He sold it in early 2021 for A$70,000. The value of the punk artwork skyrocketed to A$500,000 at the height of fashion.
Meanwhile, an auction house approached Mr. Maegaard and offered him over $50 million if he was willing to sell them CryptoPunk 8348.
"I don't think it would have sold for what they were offering," he added.
With more money than ever before, Maegaard has now turned his attention to a whole new career: DJing.
He has created a helmet to wear as a DJ that is a physical embodiment of his CryptoPunk artwork, see above.
Maegaard's DJ nickname is Seedphrase.
In November, he DJed at an NFT-themed party where other crypto and NFT millionaires rubbed shoulders with one another.
He is currently in Los Angeles working on his passion for music and has another gig booked at a Selfridges fashion show in London.
"I'm living my best life," he added.
- by Alex Turner-Cohen, news.com.au
