Meet some people getting rich from bitcoin

For Eddy Zillan’s bar mitzvah in 2012, his parents gave him $5,000 to start an investment fund. They expected him to start dabbling in stocks. Instead, he began buying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.

Eddy saved up another $7,000 from summers spent working at a tennis club and other jobs, adding that to his investment fund for a total $12,000 in principal.

Anybody who has been following cryptocurrencies knows where this story is going: Eddy’s $12,000 investment is now worth well over $500,000, a return exceeding 4,100% in just a few years.

“I don’t know if he’s a prodigy, but he’s close,” says Eddy’s father, Gary Zillan. Eddy, now 18, is a high school senior in Orange, Ohio, near Cleveland. He hopes to study dentistry next year at Case Western Reserve University. But if that doesn’t work out, he has a Plan B, since he just launched a company that provides tutorials and insights on cryptocurrencies. “Hopefully he’ll be a multimillionaire by the time he’s my age,” says his father, who is 46.

Eddy Zillan, 18, of Orange, Ohio, has amassed well over $500,000 worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. (Photo courtesy of Eddy Zillan)