A Single Investment Could Have Turned $1,000 Into More Than $30 Million

Key Points

• A $1,000 investment into Bitcoin in 2011 would be worth nearly $30 million today.

• While Bitcoin has now gone mainstream, back in 2011 it was an extremely risky and speculative investment.

• It's not too late to buy Bitcoin, with some predicting that it could increase from $120,000 to $21 million within the next two decades.

• 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›

Few people realize just how much money they could have made with even a modest investment in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Back in early 2011, if you had invested just $1,000 in Bitcoin, you would now be sitting on an investment worth about $30 million.

That's because Bitcoin was trading at about $4 at the time, and you would have been able to purchase roughly 250 Bitcoins with your $1,000 investment. Today, more than a decade later, the price of a single Bitcoin trades for about $120,000.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Bitcoin before it became Bitcoin

Don't beat yourself up about missing out on this opportunity. Relatively few people recognized the explosive upside potential of Bitcoin back in 2011. Those were still the very early days of Bitcoin, and few people understood how cryptocurrencies actually worked. Terms like cryptographic hash function and proof-of-work mining sounded alien and mysterious. And, to this day, nobody knows the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

Moreover, all the innovations of modern crypto markets -- such as regulated online cryptocurrency exchanges and spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) -- did not yet exist. Back in 2011, Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) had not yet opened for business, so you would have had to purchase your Bitcoin on a rather dubious online exchange like Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, which was hacked numerous times before eventually going bankrupt in 2014. As a result, the early days of Bitcoin are filled with incredible stories of people setting up face-to-face meetings with complete strangers to buy and sell Bitcoin in person.

Image source: Getty Images.

That was truly the Wild West. About the same time as Bitcoin was nearing the $4 mark, stories were circulating about a new "dark web" e-commerce platform called Silk Road, where some people were buying illicit goods and services and paying for them with Bitcoin. Today, of course, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, is a hero in the crypto community. In January, President Donald Trump officially gave him a presidential pardon.

And don't forget about Bitcoin Pizza Day, which the Bitcoin community recognizes each year on May 22. On that date in 2010, the first-ever commercial Bitcoin transaction took place. A computer programmer in Florida agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoins to anyone who would order and deliver two pizzas to him. At the time, those pizzas were worth $40. The 10,000 Bitcoins used to pay for them are worth more than $1 billion today.

So, if you bought Bitcoin back in 2011, congratulations. You would have been investing $1,000 into a start-up digital asset based on an abstruse whitepaper written by a shadowy unknown figure. You would then have to have avoided numerous hacks and security breaches, all while keeping track of passwords and cryptographic seed phrases.

You would also have had to endure incredible volatility and eye-popping plunges of 80% or more. At numerous points along your Bitcoin journey, you would have been tempted to cash out and sell everything.

"Everybody gets Bitcoin at the price they deserve"

Even Michael Saylor, the founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), and now one of the biggest Bitcoin bulls in the world, admits that he did not have the foresight to buy Bitcoin in the early days. He first started buying Bitcoin in August 2020, when it was already trading above $10,000.

Of course, Saylor regrets that he didn't start earlier. At a Bitcoin event in Prague last December, he told participants, "Everybody gets Bitcoin at the price they deserve." Back in 2013, he says, he looked at Bitcoin and didn't think it had any staying power. He compared it to online gambling, and passed on the opportunity. The price of Bitcoin back then was just $892.

At some point in the future, Saylor says, Bitcoin will be trading at about $950,000 and "some whiny talking head" on TV will say that it's "overbought" or "a bit overheated." They will pass on the opportunity. Even at the price of less than $1 million, they will not deserve to buy Bitcoin. It will only be when it hits, say, a price of $8 million or higher that many people will finally wake up and realize that maybe it's time to invest in Bitcoin.

Is it too late to invest in Bitcoin?

The good news, of course, is that it's not too late to invest in Bitcoin. OK, you missed out on Bitcoin when it was trading for less than $10. We all did. You missed out when Bitcoin hit $100, then $1,000, then $10,000, and now $100,000. So what?

There's still time. Saylor now thinks Bitcoin is going to $21 million in 21 years. If you invest $1,000 today, you'll be buying less than 1/100 of a whole Bitcoin. You won't be buying the 250 Bitcoins you would have been able to buy in 2011. But if you hold onto that tiny sliver of Bitcoin long enough, it might just end up being the single best investment you ever make.

Should you invest $1,000 in Bitcoin right now?

Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,010,880!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 14, 2025

Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.