I just read a story that’s pretty intense and makes you think. Kiarash Hossainpour – a German YouTuber with Iranian roots – became a millionaire at 18 and went bankrupt at 22. Sounds like a movie, but it’s real.

The guy somehow managed to find the quick route to wealth. While he still had no beard, he was giving online seminars about entrepreneurship. Pretty wild for his age. His father, a computer scientist himself, gave him his first computer at age 10 – with the clear instruction: If you want to make money with it, learn to program. And Kiarash did just that.

At 13, he started his YouTube channel, initially sharing gaming tips, then building WordPress sites for about $30 each. Then in 2014, he received his first Bitcoin payment – and that was the moment everything started. By late 2015, he invested nearly €40,000 in Bitcoin. His parents naturally asked if it was legal, if it was real money, or just a scam. His father just told him: Be careful, focus on your studies, and don’t forget that these millions are just numbers on a screen.

But Kiarash Hossainpour used those very numbers as motivation. He marketed himself as a success story online. On YouTube, he gave fairly sensible tips – “Only invest what you can afford to lose” – but the photos showed him at 20 in a Rolls-Royce or Lamborghini, Cuban cigars in his mouth. A surreal mix.

Then came the disaster. In spring 2022, the crypto market crashed. Kiarash Hossainpour lost up to 90% of his portfolio. But the real knockout punch came from Luna – a cryptocurrency he had previously bet on with messianic zeal on his channel. Luna lost 99% of its value. Overnight, everything was gone.

What does the guy do? He blames the incompetence of the Luna team, admits he didn’t see it coming. His “sixth sense” was dulled. And here’s where it gets interesting: while Kiarash Hossainpour still believes in Bitcoin and says losses are part of the game, thousands of unwitting followers did the same – and are now also broke.

Kiarash Hossainpour’s story is basically a warning. It’s not just about a young guy earning too much too fast and losing it again. It’s about how easy it is to drive others into bankruptcy when you sell yourself as an expert without really being one. The guy was self-taught, learned a lot, but in the end, he didn’t understand what he was getting into – and thousands of others who followed him didn’t either.

It’s a lesson on how dangerous it can be to get rich quickly in crypto without really knowing what you’re doing.