‘I thought I was going to be a millionaire'

Fears rise that the wild promotion of unregulated crypto assets is creating a new generation of addicts

- Rob Davies

Steven has lost more bitcoins than most people will own. Raised in Shetland, Scotland, he left school at 13 to become a trawlerman before moving into construction, eventually earning $115,000 a year digging tunnels for the new London subterranean Crossrail route.

Despite his success, compulsive cryptocurrency trading, alcohol and drug use took over his life. Steven lost the “addresses” of between five and 10 bitcoins, rendering his digital buried treasure – worth up to $400,000 today – impossible to retrieve.

Even if he had that money now, his addiction means it would soon be squandered.

“Trading is gambling, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “I taught myself how to be a good trader and tried really hard to manage my accounts and stick to a set of rules.

“But my mind would twist and I’d go all in, like a poker player that thought he had the perfect hand. I was convinced I was going to be a bitcoin millionaire.”

Now in recovery at the Castle Craig residential treatment clinic in Scotland, Steven fears young people are being lured into high-risk trading and potentially addiction.

“A generation think that with a little mobile phone they can win, that they can […] beat the market,” he said. “It scares the bejesus out of me.” Steven’s fears are founded partly on crypto’s rapid emergence into the mainstream as a more democratic alternative to the global financial system.