ZDNET
Welcome to Hot Bitcoin Summer, 2025 Edition. It's July 14, and Bitcoin is on fire.
Turns out that when the President of the United States is bullish on a fake currency, it takes off. Then, when the US Congress declares "crypto week," cybercurrency speculators get that warm, squishy feeling that makes them think good things are about to happen in their imaginary world of bits as bucks.
In honor of all of this and because my eyes popped when I checked my own investments this morning, I'm talking about Bitcoin. Specifically, in this article, I'll discuss how much money I gained on my vast Bitcoin holdings since the last time I updated this article, back in January.
To put this into perspective, let me define what I mean by "vast." On Jan. 1, 2022, after a celebratory New Year's Eve filled with whatever was playing on BritBox that evening, I decided to take the plunge and invest my entire PayPal account balance into Bitcoin.
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PayPal, you see, had just announced that it would become a Bitcoin wallet provider. That meant all I had to do was give up even more personal identifying information than I normally do to PayPal, along with my PayPal balance, and I would become the proud owner of what was then slightly more than 0.001 of a Bitcoin.
My start with Bitcoin
During the process of setting up my Bitcoin investment, I regained some degree of self-control and perspective. Rather than putting my entire PayPal balance of $64 into Bitcoin, I decided to invest a more sane $50 (plus the $1.15 in fees PayPal demands for its always-so-helpful participation in any transaction).
That self-control came in clutch when, after just a week, my holdings dropped almost 14%.
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