Back in 2013, my friend Jake, a tech enthusiast, was raving about this new thing called Bitcoin. During one of our coffee meetups, he convinced me to buy a few bitcoins, which were priced at around $100 each. Skeptical but curious, I bought five. Fast forward to 2017, Bitcoin's value skyrocketed to nearly $20,000 per coin. My initial $500 investment had grown to almost $100,000! I cashed out a portion and treated myself to a dream vacation in Japan. Though the market remains volatile, that experience taught me the potential of cryptocurrencies and the importance of taking calculated risks.