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- 38-year-old Eric Hackney put $500 into a cryptocurrency called Australian Safe Shepherd, which is more commonly known as ASS coin, Bloomberg reported.
- He now owns 20 billion units of the altcoin.
- Hackney invested in ASS coin after losing money on GameStop and missing out on gains in dogecoin, both social media favorites.
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One millennial investor vowed to "never again" miss out on gains from hyped-up cryptocurrencies. One $500 investment later, he's now the proud owner of 20 billion units of Australian Safe Shepherd, also known as ASS coin, Bloomberg reported.
In the article, titled "$ASS Coin Billionaire: Tales From the Fringe of the Crypto Craze," Bloomberg reporters detailed the wild ride of 38-year-old Eric Hackney, who opted to play the financial markets on the Robinhood app after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of work for $9 an hour.
The article described him as a "thrill-seeking amateur, goaded on by social media." Social media platforms have become a key part of the boom in retail trading, as a recent survey showed one in five investors has used Reddit to help them make an investment decision.
Hackney, a former bar tender from Tampa, Florida, said he was part of the GameStop craze earlier this year in which an army of Reddit retail traders caused the stock to skyrocket, squeezing short sellers. As for his investment in the stock, he told Bloomberg he "was up and then, in a blink, he wasn't."
He invested in dogecoin, at one point, too. Dogecoin, which twisted and turned this past week amid broader market volatility, started as a social media joke about a popular meme and has since turned into a well-known altcoin.
In January, Hackney bought dogecoin at 4 cents, and the currency immediately doubled. But he couldn't stand the wild price swings and sold his position, only to see it rocket to 70 cents earlier this month.
At that point, he vowed to never let that happen to him again, Bloomberg wrote. That's when he put $500 into ASS coin.
Altcoins have taken hold of retail investors recently. Instead of the well-known bitcoin, many are investing in alternatives like dogecoin, litecoin, and safemoon, among others.
Earlier this week, Barstool sports founder Dave Portnoy, calling the alternatives "sh*tcoins," invested $40,000 in Safemoon, which launched in March.
Cryptocurrency linked-stocks plummeted this week amid massive sell-offs in bitcoin and ethereum. Analysts have warned against investing in alternative cryptocurrencies, though, saying the social-media driven coins are unregulated and highly volatile.