Cooper Turley started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2017. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at just over $2,000, according to CoinMarketCap, while Ether was worth just a few hundred dollars. Turley bought both.

Turley, then 23, told CNBC that those early investments helped him become a millionaire, with a seven-figure fortune, 90% of which was "formed" since 2019. "I'm not sure I did anything big, because there are so many people better at crypto," he said.

Without revealing the initial investment amount, Turley said it was “not much.” “I was still in college and working a few jobs at the time,” he said. “I only invested a few hundred dollars.”

Turley said he first invested in Ether while studying music business at the University of Colorado Denver in 2017. He saw the potential for Ether’s blockchain technology to transform the music industry and help artists make more money. For example, smart contracts on the blockchain could speed up the process of paying royalties directly to creators.

When he graduated in 2018, Turley got more serious about crypto investing. “In 2017, my holdings were down,” he said. “For about two or three years, when everyone was selling, I invested a lot, basically all my income, into Ether when it was around $100.”

Of course, this is a very risky move. In fact, experts warn that you should only invest in Bitcoin if you can afford to lose money. Cryptocurrencies are speculative investments that are prone to volatility.

Furthermore, exchanges and wallets are frequently hacked. Even large exchanges like Coinbase can be hacked. There is no agency that guarantees your Bitcoins, so if you lose them, it will be very difficult to get them back.

Still, Turley isn't giving up. "For me, 2018 was a turning point, as Ether moved from speculation to a technology that could build usable products," he said.

2020 was called the “DeFi Summer,” when a technological “wave” was created in this space. Turley continued to invest and profit from DeFi, while also doing some crypto-related work.

“I’ve contributed to more than 50 crypto projects and am an investor in about 20 others,” he said. “My parents were interested and spent a few thousand dollars. It’s great that they’re interested in this.”

Turley told CNBC that he used at least five figures of his profits to pay off most of his student loans. "Financial freedom is not about paying off debt, it's about starting to do interesting things," he said.

Now, a week after the US presidential election, Bitcoin (BTC)'s bullish momentum shows no signs of slowing down. The digital currency is currently trading around $88,000.

However, Deribit also noted that call options were only placed in the $90,000-$100,000 range. Beyond $100,000, most investors placed put options. This means that BTC's rally may not last very long.