Found This Story: My brother killed himself because of BTC

[DavidTT]

Read this on reddit. Pretty nuts if you ask me. I think to a certain extent, you really gotta be careful not to get too attached emotionally with money/success etc. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean that you can't have a good life without it.

I don't really know where to post this but I feel like I need to vent.

Do not take this as criticism of Bitcoin, blockchain technology, or cryptocurrency users & developers, it's not.

There are probably other factors that led to my brother's suicide, but he had been beating himself up over Bitcoin for the past several years to the point where he seemed constantly depressed over it and gradually became a shadow of his former happy self.

He claimed to have owned 15,000 at one point, which may have been an exaggeration. But I know for a fact that at some point around October-November 2012 he did have at least 6,000 BTC which he showed me in his wallets. He was so enthusiastic about Bitcoin and how cryptocurrencies would revolutionize the financial world. For awhile he was annoying the F*ck out of our relatives about how it would make them millionaires.

I'm not sure exactly what happened to his BTC. Sometime in 2013 he claimed to have lost most of them in a hack and sold the remainder too early. He very well may have sold them all too early, but who knows.

As the price took off in late 2013-early 2014 you could tell he was distraught over it and became increasingly withdrawn from family and friends. Whenever I did manage to contact him he would sometimes end up ranting about how badly he had f*cked up and how he would never have a chance to be rich again.

As the price climbed up to 10k over the past several months it became even more difficult to make contact with him, he just wouldn't reply to me or my parents calls and texts. A couple weeks ago my parents flew out to see my brother and found him dead by suicide with no note. He was 29 with 50 years of life ahead of him.

Other than obvious grief I don't really know how to feel about this. If I had missed out on $50M I might have killed myself too. I can't imagine what my brother must have been feeling these past several years knowing he missed his best & easiest shot at the wealthy life he had always fantasized about. Bitcoin totally f*cked up his mindset to the point where you couldn't talk about anything related to investing, money or finances without him storming off or crying.

If there's any more of you in a similar situation feel free to PM me. Please try to recognize there are endless economic opportunities in life and 1 mistake doesn't define your future. There are family and friends who care about you and will listen.

My brother killed himself because of BTC • r/Bitcoin

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Reserved for comment...

 

[The EL Maven]

That's life. You cannot predict the future. When I see the current the BTC price hockey stick, I feel a little down, too. We all could have bought in a long time ago and we imagine what it would be like if we did. But this is toxic thinking. Instead of trying to view life through hindsight, which is truly depressing, we should remind ourselves that opportunities are everywhere. There's never been more than there is today. Solve a problem, and the tools to distribute the solution are more abundant and pervasive than ever.

The sad part of the story is that the brother dwelled on his perceived failure, and then falsely believed that he'd never get another chance. He was literally swimming in chances, he just didn't know how to look.

 

[Joe Cassandra]

I've been following IOTA for a few months now. At some point, it traded for like $0.70 2-3 weeks ago.

I sat on my hands and just left my money in BTC...(which was fine obviously)

Then, yesterday, I didn't see, but IOTA jumped. Then, it jumped even more today. It's up to $3.30 (as of this writing).

Meaning, my $2,000 could've turned into almost $10,000 in record time. Unfortunately, I didn't pull the trigger. I was frustrated because I knew big news was coming at some point (from whispers on Reddit) but figured it'd be in January.

------------
What do I tell myself?

THERE ARE ALWAYS MORE OPPORTUNITIES. Everyday. There is something new.

"Oh, but BTC is a once in a lifetime thing!"

Yeah...you could've said that about Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Ethereum, Virtual Reality, Electric cars...

There will always be another opportunity, and sometimes you whiff because you hesitated. All it takes is ONE opportunity you call for you to be wealthy... (see Mark Cuban, Bill Gates...list goes on)

Does it still sting when I miss out 5X-ing my money (would've paid off a good chunk of the bathroom remodel we just did)...absolutely...

But there's always more...

 

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[ruzara5]

Read this on reddit. Pretty nuts if you ask me. I think to a certain extent, you really gotta be careful not to get too attached emotionally with money/success etc. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean that you can't have a good life without it.



My brother killed himself because of BTC • r/Bitcoin

Read it. Similar circle of events and associates that unfortunately did go down that path. They had investments. Others did reach out to them. Cannot go into investments usually with a single approach. All those 'eggs' in one basket. Other times the person is dealing with a mountain of problems. BTC carries on.

 

[Ninjakid]

Let me just say this.

I don't believe our lives are a product of random happenings and decisions we make. I believe our intentions, beliefs, and actions come into alignment with our outer circumstances, even if we don't immediately see it. So sometimes we can't predict the outcome of our decisions, but even if the outcome is not what we wanted, there's a silver lining which we may not notice until later.

Last year, a family friend invested $100K in a stock and tripled his money. I had the opportunity to invest $30K into this same stock. But I didn't. If I did, I would have came out with $90K. It's not $50M, but a F*cking lot of money to play with.

Even though it may seem I made the wrong decision, I don't regret it at all, and if I had to do it all again I would do the same thing. Why didn't I invest it? Because to be honest, I don't actually know that much about investing. It seemed like a good idea, and other people were telling me to do it. But I wasn't sure. My thinking was, I would feel much worse about losing the $30K on something I didn't know that much about than make a sizable return on a gamble. So I decided not to invest.

My point is this: to paraphrase Elliott Hulse, "you can't always make the right decisions but you can make your decisions right."
More precious than the outcome of your circumstances is your ability to own the choices you make, and feel strongly about them because while the exact outcome may be uncertain, the choices belong to you. They are your power.

This is a tragic incident, and I hope it serves as a reminder to everyone that even if you screw up, it's never too late.

 

[Mineralogic]

Read this on reddit. Pretty nuts if you ask me. I think to a certain extent, you really gotta be careful not to get too attached emotionally with money/success etc. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean that you can't have a good life without it.



My brother killed himself because of BTC • r/Bitcoin

yeah going viral on reddit. Seeing alot of posts on crypto here all of a sudden now that a huge run already happened

 

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[Envision]

I came across bitcoin in 2010 on the bodybuilding.com misc forum when it was literally cents to buy btc. I was looking at silk road and wondering how the hell this all worked. I was 16 and literally thinking, "hey how cool would it be if this stuff went to $20 bucks".

Never bought any. Didnt need to buy drugs online, didnt need to buy bitcoin.

I dont regret it, theres no use crying over spilt milk. If you live your life wondering what if you never have a chance to experience whats to come. And I think if you miss an opportunity you can learn from it and benefit in the future (im now heavily involved with numerous altcoins).

Im not one to say that money doesnt matter in life. It does, but there is also alot more to life than money.

 

[ZF Lee]

Reddit OP is correct. Man, I had no idea this stuff happened!

Today I walked around a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city.

I had just heard the Winklevoss twins became Bitcoin billionaires, and discovered that I wasn't. (Lol)

Then I realised one thing:

People around me were still buying, selling and living their lives.

The sellers and business owners providing the goods and services were still earning money, learning new things and making new connections.

I just bought a nice waffle, a Hong Kong cake and a milk tea at a side cafe. Scrumptious, warm and sweet. Many other people must like this too, as the entire cafe is packed. Maybe the owner might make ten grand in 48 hours or so. And maybe the owner didn't have a degree or a Masters...

And none of them knew anything about the crypto hype in the tech realm.

They were just about as happy, rich and satisfied as one can be, albeit with their varying expectations.

Life goes on, everyone. Life goes on.

Bitcoin or crypto will be the future. But behind it lies the very Fastlane principles that help us to provide value of many sorts to help UNSCRIPT us. That, we can always use in any field.

To go to such heights of insanity would be to miss the whole point of real wealth and freedom.

EDIT: And something to note, if people can fork out money to buy Bitcoin, they can, and will fork out money to buy other goods deemed valuable. Especially from Fastlane entrepreneurs lol.

As long people have money, there is always opportunity.

 

[shubham525]

I was also feeling sorry for not getting earlier in it.

 

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[Frosting]

I've known quite a few people who were depressed/suicidal, and I think it's too easy to say, "X was the cause of his/her depression/suicide." It usually goes much deeper than that. Obviously, everyone is different, with different triggers. But these things generally tend to have deep-rooted psychological causes. It's very difficult for loved ones, because it can be so difficult to understand when the issue (general sadness, etc) becomes something much more serious

OP's story is a reminder to prioritize mental health above all else.

Also: As for missing out on wealth - I once met someone who could've been employee #xx at Google, back when Google was completely unheard of. He's perfectly happy with his life, his family, etc - he said that if he'd accepted that job, he might've had wealth, but not the kids he's got now. There are lots of things worth more than money...

 

[Contrarian]

Crazy. And sad.

I've been familiar with Bitcoin since the really early days. I've always been a believer in what cryptocurrency sets out to do. Hell, a guy I've loosely internet-known for over 15 years is one of the people behind Dogecoin.

Yet, I never put a cent into Bitcoin. Until the last few years I was never far-sighted enough to save my money. And then after that I (mostly correctly, IMO) figured - why worry about investing until I've got a big pot of money to invest? It's just a distraction.

Even if I did put money into Bitcoin years ago, I didn't have the mindset to go with it so I wouldn't be sitting on all those profits today.

Now I see the current situation and my reaction is pretty much, oh well. Like @Envision says, no sense dwelling on the past.

Having said that, it did make me think. There's a world-changing opportunity here, and Bitcoin is just the beginning. What will be the next Bitcoin? And how can I identify that opportunity now and get in on the ground floor?

I spent pretty much the whole weekend researching. Then I bought £1000 worth of Cardano. Not impulsively. Not because I was looking for something to bet on. It's outside the scope of this thread to dive into the details, but I examined the value array, looked at their mission, and looked at the team behind it, and figured: this has a very real chance to be the cryptocurrency that gets worldwide adoption. There's nothing else even remotely like this in the market. And virtually noone even knows about it right now.

I could lose the whole £1000 tomorrow and I wouldn't be phased. There's always more where that came from. But if I'm right, that could turn into the "F*ck you" fund all by itself. I'm going to leave it there and not touch it for years to come.

Moral of the story? You'll always miss opportunities. How can you take what you've learned and use it to identify the next one?

 

[eliquid]

I feel for him and his loss. However, I think more was at play with the reasons on the suicide than just BTC of course.

You have to be able to function normally as a human and be able to handle loss.

Losing $50 million? I am not sure how I would feel. I doubt I would kill myself over it.

Losing my spouse or my kids? I would think that would make me more likely to commit suicide than losing $50 million. I didn't say I would, I mean I would think this would make me more likely to think about it than something like bitcoin loss.

Sounds like BTC was the only thing he had going for him in his life the way the OP at reddit made it out. Reminds me of the stories about Wall Street or similar where people jumped out of windows because they lost money. If that's what you base your life around and worth around and you feel it's all you have, then I can see how it came to that.. but then again I also feel that you have some deep issues in your life that lead to you even having those beliefs.

.

 

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[TonyStark]

Not worth losing your life over some BTC.

 

[mws87]

I can't imagine equating my life to a dollar amount on a screen or a missed opportunity.

 

[luniac]

my own mother suggested i buy bitcoin when it cost pennies and just ignored it. It is what it is.

At the end of the day even if i bought 1000 bitcoins and became a millionaire, i'd be thankful everyday for the financial freedom, but i wouldn't feel a sense of accomplishment.

 

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[Deleted52409]

You can't let your life be determined by chance.

 

[lipekbjj]

A really sad story, but realistic as hell. I also blamed myself for a choice I decided to do and is also referred Cryptocurrencies. The fortune what You can reach really "easy" is terrible affecting for young people like me and man who died. Maybe my "lose" (bad choice?) is not huge like the guy who died if we measure in $, but is also many for me.

It took me a long time to know myself and recognize whats going on with my body and mind in the situations which had a big influence on my behavior. Knowledge, self-awareness, and people are key for me.
Self-awareness because You know that something is wrong and You try to change that.
Knowledge helps You figure out the problem.
People always can help you do this faster, they can grab your hand and push You in a good direction.

I'm telling myself that was not the time for big money. I'm sure that I was not ready. I could not bear it, it would overwhelm me.
I am a person who want still more I can't imagine that I will stand in one place and left my all dreams. One people only dreams, others turns dreams into reality.

Not the first and certainly not the last opportunity that will happen to me. Besides, I create an opportunity for myself. I will be ready now.

 

[Caramel]

Terrible stuff. I think with the rise of social media, vloggers and generally people trying to show eachother how "great" their lives are through the power of the internet, a lot of young and somewhat easily influenced people are starting to yearn more and more for freedom.

This fellow wasn't even in the "I heard of Bitcoin but never thought of investing, silly me!" category. He actually had the coins. All he had to do was hold on to them for a bit and he'd be set for life. Must feel like absolute shit losing that one way or another.


And here I am being grumpy cause I postponed investing in Lumens, which went from 0,06 to 0,17 overnight.

 

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[Rawiri]

That's really one of the troubles with speculation.

If you judge wrong and lose money - you feel bad.

But even if you get it right and make money (which from that account he must have, despite having had some hacked) - then there's still a tendency to feel bad because you could have made even MORE money.

It's a no-win situation emotionally.

I don't think most people have developed the detachment or emotional fortitude to handle it well when it happens in significant amounts...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Obviously the guy had other mental health issues. The gun was already loaded and pointed at his head.
The lost opportunity on the BTC investment was merely a trigger.

Sadly, if/when the thing implodes, I'm sure we will hear more stories like this.

 

[B. Cole]

Very sorry for the guys’ loss. He could have applied what he learned from it to other ventures, including crypto. He was actually very fortunate to have lost and learned, the majority of the world is still oblivious. He was actually way ahead, as all of you are right now, no matter if we were late on the initial round or not. Unfortunate he couldn’t see it this way.

Be sane ya’ll. Most times, happiness is an inside job.

 

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