A 47-year-old investor converts every dollar he earns into bitcoin and says he will never sell, according to an interview published by MarketWatch. The investor, who was not identified by name, said his paycheck "takes a detour through bitcoin" the moment it lands.
That means his entire income — not a fixed percentage, not a dollar-cost-averaging slice — goes into the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value. He is 47, an age when most financial advisers recommend shifting toward bonds and stable assets ahead of retirement, and he has no stated exit plan.
The strategy carries risks that dwarf a typical concentrated stock bet. Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from its peak in three separate drawdowns since 2011, including a drop from roughly $69,000 in November 2021 to under $16,000 a year later. An investor who bought near that high and kept buying all the way down would have watched most of two years of earnings evaporate on paper.
Bitcoin traded near $100,000 as of early 2025, up sharply from its 2022 low, but the asset has no earnings, no dividend and no government backing. Its price is set entirely by what the next buyer will pay. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January 2024, giving mainstream investors a regulated route into the asset, but the agency has repeatedly warned that crypto markets remain volatile and lightly policed compared with equities.
The investor's approach mirrors a small but vocal group of bitcoin maximalists who treat the asset as a savings technology rather than a trade. Their argument rests on bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins and its independence from any central bank. The counterargument: a portfolio with zero diversification leaves no cushion if the thesis is wrong, and a 47-year-old has roughly two decades, not four, to recover from a prolonged slump.
Financial planners generally cap speculative holdings at 5% to 10% of a portfolio. A 2023 study by Vanguard found that portfolios with bitcoin allocations above 5% produced worse risk-adjusted returns than those without crypto at all.
The investor told MarketWatch he is "never selling." Whether that conviction holds through the next bear market is a question only he can answer — and one his retirement depends on.
