A businessman has paid off his house mortgage through his bitcoin investments and is now using his profits to fund the development of a new home.
Michael Sloggett, based in Townsville, a coastal city in northeastern Queensland, Australia, initially started trading in bitcoin five years ago in order to purchase overseas supplements for his store Second to None Nutrition. He did this to avoid the slow settlement times and the high fees between banks.
It wasn’t until the start of 2017 that he decided to begin investing in the currency. Such a move has proven to be quite profitable to him. At the time bitcoin was trading around AU$1,100 before eventually soaring to AU$7,700, reports the Townsville Bulletin.
He said:
We paid off the mortgage and bought a block of land at Townsville out of the profits. We are now building a new home.
In addition to running his nutrition business he also runs My Bitcoin Academy. This he launched five months ago to teach people how to invest in the cryptocurrency. So far he’s helped around 2,500 people. He also runs a Facebook site called Crypto Calls Australia.
As a result of his investment in the digital currency and the profits garnered from it, Sloggett now has five stores: two in Townsville, one in Mount Isa, one in Bundaberg and one in Sydney.
This news comes at a time when many critics are claiming that bitcoin is a bubble about be burst.
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, is notable for taking a shot at the currency when he called it ‘a fraud‘ last month. Whereas, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal believes that bitcoin is ‘going to implode‘ due to a lack of regulatory supervision.
Yet, while Sloggett states that people should conduct ‘due diligence’ first before giving their money away, he claims that he holds much of his wealth in the digital currency.