Norwegian Student's $27 Bitcoin Buy Turns into $336 Million Windfall

Kristoffer Koch, a Norwegian graduate student, bought Bitcoin in 2009 as part of his master's thesis research on encryption. He spent 150 Norwegian kroner, approximately $27 at the time, to purchase 5,000 BTC.

Koch forgot about the wallet and didn't check its value until four years later, when he discovered it was worth $886,000 due to a significant price surge.

The student decided to use one-fifth of his holding, 1,000 BTC, to buy an apartment in Oslo. This left him with 4,000 BTC untouched.

Assuming none of the remaining coins were sold later, and based on Bitcoin's current price of $84,196.11 as of October 2, 2026, Koch's untouched holding would be worth approximately $336.8 million.