Now, exchange canceling all your trades and taking your money
Sound unreal? For Kevin Day, it was reality
Here’s his story of how he lost $27 BILLION 🧵👇
Kevin Day was just an ordinary guy from Nebraska with a passion for the internet and programming.
He worked as a game developer, with titles like NBA Showtime, Mortal Kombat 4, and NFL Blitz on his résumé.
At one point, he even managed to snap a photo with Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)
Kevin also did freelance work online while trying to build his own startup.
Unfortunately, his startup collapsed after the Dot-Com Crash of 2000.
Afterward, he shifted to web hosting, and that’s when Kevin discovered Bitcoin.
Drawn by the promise of internet freedom, he couldn’t ignore the opportunity it presented.
Kevin Day joined the Bitcoin community in 2011, right as the price skyrocketed from $0.30 to $7 almost without pause.
He dove into mining and trading, fully embracing the crypto space.
On June 19, 2011, something extraordinary happened.
In just 20 minutes, the price of $BTC plummeted from $17 to $0.01
Kevin Day realized it was time to act.
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While everyone else was scrambling to understand what was happening, Kevin made his move and invested $3,000.
The purchase price? An absurdly low $0.0101
This brought his balance to 260,000 $BTC
When the price rebounded, his profit skyrocketed by over 100,000%
But the victory was short-lived.
The price crash was triggered by a hack. The attacker stole tokens and sold them off, intentionally tanking the market.
Mt. Gox, the exchange, quickly announced that all trades during the incident would be voided.
A week prior to the incident, Mt. Gox had already reported the theft of 25,000 $BTC
On top of that, they were shifting the blame onto their auditor.
In hindsight, keeping funds on an exchange back then was a terrible idea.
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There were quite a few people who managed to buy $BTC during the crash for mere pennies.
When it became clear that the trades would be canceled, frustration and outrage spread quickly among the community.
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Before the trades were fully reversed, Kevin managed to withdraw 643 $BTC — an amount that exceeded the exchange's withdrawal limits at the time.
This move would later be used against him in debates and disputes surrounding the incident.
The criticism from the community was massive, and Kevin was one of the few who didn't stay silent.
He appeared on one of the first TV shows covering Bitcoin to defend himself.
Kevin's stance was clear: he considered his trades legitimate.
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Kevin stated that he wasn't responsible for the security of the exchange and that Mt. Gox never refunded people who were hacked.
The community was divided, and he received a lot of hate.
Some even accused him of being the one who hacked the exchange.
However, there were also those who supported him and saw him as a hero.
Many urged him to take legal action, but he refused, stating that he didn't want to harm Bitcoin in the process.
Debates sparked within the community about whether exchanges should align with the principles of cryptocurrency.
After all, centralized exchanges don't provide users with direct access to their assets, unlike crypto wallets.
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Of course, the exchange acted in its own interest and nullified all the transactions.
Kevin lost 259,360 $BTC
But during this ordeal, many learned a crucial lesson that still holds true today: Never store your funds on an exchange
