We asked for your craziest crypto story. These are the winners

The winners of a contest to find the craziest stories in crypto have been named — and they feature a Russian grandmother and a Counter-Strike tournament with a big BTC prize.

Last month, Tradelize and Cointelegraph teamed up for a contest to hear your craziest crypto stories — casting a spotlight on some of your biggest successes and fails.

You didn’t disappoint… and selecting one winner was impossible. Because of this, we chose two — with the lucky raconteurs sharing a 5,000 USDT prize between them.

The first tale came from Timofei, who received a $100 gift from his grandmother in Russia. He decided to invest it in cryptocurrency — all while he followed his dreams of becoming a director in film school.

Timofei was able to use the profits he generated from the investment to fund the shooting of a film he was making for his course, with his grandmother serving as the main producer. His creation was a success — and as well as being entered into a Switzerland film festival, it was also shown at Moscow’s Museum of Modern Art.

“This is a living dream, because I didn’t count on anything,” he wrote in his story.

His grandmother lives in a remote village where internet access is limited — meaning he needs to put his mobile phone in a clay mug to get a signal. These days, Timofei says he is carefully day trading with an ambition to shoot a graduation film. He’s also been able to return the $100 to his grandmother, and buy her a TV for her birthday.

Wrapping up his powerful story, he wrote: “I do not always close deals profitably, but I manage to keep myself in hand and learn from mistakes step by step. After all, for me the stock chart is a metaphor for life, with its ups and downs. Have a good investment, watch an art movie and take care of your grandmothers!”

A missed opportunity

The other winner chosen by Cointelegraph comes from Cryptonaut, who used to compete in local Counter-Strike tournaments at internet cafes in 2011, when Bitcoin was trading at about $1.

He wrote: “My team and I made it to the finals after several razor-thin matches. It came down to a two-versus-one situation where I accidentally killed my teammate with some friendly fire. Needless to say we lost the match.

“The winning team ended up getting close to $500 in cash. As runners up we received 20 BTC each. At the time, I didn’t really know what cryptocurrency really was. I ended up trading my 20 BTC for a gaming mouse pad.”

Cryptonaut still has the mousepad to this very day — but naturally, he thinks of what could have been. If he had held on to the crypto stash, it would have been worth more than $1.2 million at the time of writing… 2,400 times more than the $500 would have been worth.

The CEOs of Tradelize and its partner Wootrade also shared their experiences. Anton Zapolskyi revealed how he first learned about Bitcoin, while Jack Tan shared an upbeat story from the dark days of the crypto winter in 2018.

A contest to remember

Cointelegraph’s managing editor, Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr, says selecting the winners of the contest wasn’t an easy feat by any means.

She added: “We all know the crypto markets have been full of drama over the past decade — and this contest with Tradelize shows that there have been plenty of highs and lows for early adopters, too. We’ve seen stories of people who have achieved financial independence by embracing Bitcoin… and those who have missed out on life-changing profits after selling in the early days. As the total market cap races to $2 trillion, the next chapter of the crypto revolution is only just beginning, and the rest of the story is still unwritten.”

You can check the list of winners on the Tradelize website, and prizes are going to be distributed in the coming week.