CONTROVERSIAL US commentator Alex Jones claims he lost £360m worth of Bitcoin when he threw out an old laptop.
Jones – founder of alt-right media channel Infowars – claims he lost a laptop containing 10,000 bitcoins gifted to him by TV personality and Bitcoin fanatic Max Keiser.
The commentator, known for his outlandish conspiracy theories, told a US podcast that Keiser handed him the laptop 10 years ago and had done nothing about it since.
"Ten years ago … Max Keiser comes to me and he says I have 10,000 bitcoins for you. This is the future. It will be the new global currency. He is on record," Jones alleges.
"I lost the laptop he put the 10,000 Bitcoins on. Today, what’s 10,000 bitcoins worth? A lot."
One of the presenter helped Jones calculate how much it would be worth today and discovered it was around £360m ($500m).
"You f**king idiot. Find that laptop," the presenter shouted, before jokingly slapping Jones twice.
"I deserve it," the Infowars host exclaimed while everyone on the set laughed.
At the the revelation in March, the price of bitcoin was £41,000 ($56,200), meaning Jones would have lost more than £405m ($562m).
"I swear to God this is real. I didn’t know Keiser was like hooked up with Putin and the Easter Bunny," Jones continued.
Keiser said Jones wasn't lying and that the price of Bitcoin was "under $5" when he handed over the laptop.
Keiser called the blunder "one of the most startling chapter in Bitcoin."
"Now [the 10K bitcoins Jones lost are] worth $565 million (£408m) … Soon (in 2021) to be worth $2.2 billion (£1.59bn)," he whined.
Jones is known for his bonkers claims and was once described by New York Magazine as "America’s leading conspiracy theorist".
At one point, he compared coronavirus stay-at-home orders to Nazi Germany and was being investigated for allegedly threatening to push a Trump-supporting political organizer off an event stage during a Stop the Steal rally.
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