A group of MIT alums in their 20s could be sitting on 13,000% bitcoin returns after taking part in a school project that gave them free crypto

A group of MIT alums in their 20s could be sitting on 13,000% bitcoin returns after taking part in a school project that gave them free crypto

As a college student, Mary Spanjers was always willing to participate in academic experiments on campus. She enjoyed getting a firsthand look at research, and the compensation in the form of cash or food was often an extra incentive to get involved. Years later, a free giveaway from one experiment is still paying off: one-third of a bitcoin. In 2014, the MIT Bitcoin Project allowed every undergraduate on campus to claim fractional ownership of a bitcoin, for free. Spanjers, who was first profiled in a about the experiment, applied for the study along with about 3,100 other students. Each student had to fill out a questionnaire and go over an educational handout, then they set up a digital wallet with $100 worth of bitcoin, according to Bloomberg. One-third of a bitcoin is now about $13,000, meaning anyone who held on to the cryptocurrency has seen a roughly 13,000% return. It's unclear how many participants still own the bitcoin. One in ten cashed out in the first two weeks, and one in four had sold by the time the experiment ended in mid-2017, Christian Catalini, an MIT associate professor who oversaw the study, told Bloomberg. Many students sold the bitcoin to