Dave Portnoy Reveals Lost Hardware Wallet Worth $50,000 in Bitcoin

He revealed this on Thursday, 24 Sept., in an appearance on Anthony Pompliano’s Pomp Podcast. Portnoy also revealed that he bought bitcoin at $14,000 and sold it at $16,000 during the 2017 bull run. Talking with Pomp, the sports blog founder, who now moonlights as a stock market trader, had a few choice words for bitcoin, describing it as “one big Ponzi scheme” where all market participants try to avoid being left holding the bag.

Portnoy’s $50,000 BTC Loss

After jumping in during the 2017 rush, Portnoy said that he bought approximately $50,000 worth of BTC at “$15,000 or $16,000.” Tales From the Crypt podcast founder Marty Bent reportedly helped Portnoy make the purchase and then gave him a keychain hardware wallet with the stored funds. Portnoy then subsequently lost the keychain, resulting in his forever-lost bitcoin.

@DigitalBitbox leather keychain prototype. Please help us to participate in the poll from the tweet before this one. Thanks pic.twitter.com/kMrSz1DL5o

— cryptoHWwallet (@cryptoHWwallet) October 24, 2017

Rationalizing the incident, Portnoy pointed out that he would still be at a loss on his 2017 investment, given current price levels, even if he didn’t lose the keychain. He claims his major issue with bitcoin is that it’s impossible to understand or predict market movements. Using his experience as an example, he said:

This latest round, I think I had $1.25m in it at one point. It went up, went down and went back and I thought I don’t know what…this is, and it’s too much money to not know…It’s almost like watching a sports game. My team lost, I bet on -2, my team lost by 3, I lose my money. With bitcoin, there is no rationale. I have no idea why it is going up or down.

“One Big Ponzi Scheme”

Portnoy’s overall impression of bitcoin and crypto, he says, is that of a market with no solid fundamentals, with the only priority being to pass on the loss to someone else. Less than impressed with the performance of his crypto investments, Portnoy remarked:

I understand what you guys think [bitcoin] is. To me, it is a ponzi scheme that you get in, and you just have to not be the one left holding the bag. It’s no different from the stock market. Everyone’s pumping their own [coin].