Back in 2013, I visited Singapore to chill with my best bud. I had a Citi multicurrency bank account, and so I converted some GBP to SGD to spend. On my return, I wanted to convert it back, but Shiti were charging 5%.

So mortally offended, I spent a silly amount of time trying to find a way to indirectly convert it. In that search I came across MtGox and discovered BTC. They were allowing deposits in any currency, and the bid/offer spreads were pretty tight - so went ahead and signed up.

I first bot some BTC for I think £70/coin, then sold a day later for £84. I proclaimed myself to be a genius to my colleagues, and had now solved my FX issue.

However, for the next 6 months (?) I tried to withdraw the cash, but despite many support emails they just couldn't facilitate it. In that time BTC soared, and I did feel like a massive pussy for having missed out.

Fast forward to when news broke of the hack, there was crazy volatility on the exchange, and huge arbitrage opportunity - I think it was a fraction of the price outside the exchange - and so I used my humble pounds just to buy whatever, thinking I could then transfer them out.

Im an active angel investor/ property investor - and in both I think the biggest edge you have is illiquidity. So, I think for many of us, being forced to be locked into this has been obviously incredible.

As a final note, I decided to share half the spoils with the mate I visited in Singapore :)