We spoke to the UCL student who made £30,000 through cryptocurrency investments

Thomas Bloor is a second-year Chemical Engineering student at UCL and by investing £3.5k in Bitcoin he’s made himself £30,000.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that forms part of an entirely decentralised payment system through which users can securely buy and store money electronically. Investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, is something that has become increasingly popular ever since Bitcoin was first invented in 2009.

The Tab spoke to Thomas about how he’s made his money and how he’s done it alongside his degree.

Image via @thomasgeorgebloor

What motivated you to invest in Bitcoin?

Thomas: My incentive for investing was my career aspirations. After university, I want to go into investment banking and I thought the best way to start that was by having my own portfolio. I was always told it was risky and difficult to trade in Bitcoin but I just saw this as another welcome challenge. I wanted to try and understand it for myself.

How did you first get into Bitcoin investing?

Thomas: I knew about bitcoin ever since the bull run of 2017, a period in which there is an upward trend in cryptocurrency markets for an extended period of time.

My own opportunity arose during the March crash in 2020: I had spent the previous week learning about the space and saw a fantastic buying opportunity. I remember investing for the first time specifically on the 23^rd of March because I did it in commemoration of my late twin brother, who would have encouraged me to give it a go despite the risks. I’m glad I did. With a halving event that followed in May that year (where the reward for mining Bitcoin transactions is cut in half), as well as the rumours of institutional investment, and the start of a new bull run, I got in at the perfect time!

What do you need to be successful at Bitcoin investing?

Thomas: You need to stay up to date with news regarding the cryptocurrency space but it doesn’t require a lot of knowledge or skill.

Is there a big risk of losing a lot of money?

Thomas: I suppose, yes. With every investment, there is a risk of losing all of it. I believe bitcoin has matured into an asset similar to gold. It is more scarce and has a high demand. Since investment in cryptocurrency has increased though, the risks are much smaller now compared to five years ago.

How stable do you consider the market of cryptocurrency?

Thomas: I consider large market capitalisation cryptocurrencies to be fairly stable. I’m involved with mainly Bitcoin and Ethereum. Whilst Bitcoin is considered gold, Ethereum is considered oil. They aren’t stable in terms of a consistent price, but the volatility is another reason why traders and investors are attracted to it.

What can you say about investing in Ethereum?

Thomas: Ethereum is the king of all coins. It is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation and has a much greater potential for bigger returns. I wanted to maximise the possible returns on my investment so I decided to invest in Ethereum at the same time as Bitcoin in 2020. Ethereum 2.0 was also rumoured to release that year and, due to the fact that the market capitalisation was tiny compared to bitcoin, I saw it as the perfect opportunity.

What have you done with the money you’ve already made?

Thomas: Last year, I used the money to pay off my student overdrafts. Since then, I’ve used the money to invest and I haven’t regretted it. I turned my £3.5K into £30K in nine months without any real effort! I plan to keep converting my cryptocurrency into a stable coin and then into yield farming – this will allow me to keep getting returns of up to 30% per year.

Lastly, what would your advice be for anyone wishing to follow in your footsteps? 

Thomas: My advice would be to do your research. There are a lot of negative articles about cryptocurrency investing. You need to be willing to make up your own opinion and work out what information to listen to.

A good platform to use for investing would be SwissBorg. With a premium account, the rewards are as high as 28% per year. No other bank offers interest rates comparable to this.

I would also encourage people who are just starting out to use my referral link. It gives you $100 in bitcoin if you deposit $50 or more, which is a really good head start.