Money & Me: ‘I bought my first Bitcoin at the age of 11’

INTRODUCTION
Dadvan Yousuf, who grew up as a refugee in Switzerland after fleeing war-torn Iraq with his family in 2003, started buying Bitcoin at the age of 11 after selling his toys on the street to help send money to his sick grandmother.

Now 23, the self-made millionaire is in training to climb Mount Everest next month, with the aim of promoting financial literacy worldwide through his education platform.

“My message is that financial education is a human right … I want people around the world to understand that,” he says.

Mr Yousuf, the third oldest of seven siblings, moved to Dubai last year and has launched several companies in the UAE, including one that invests in commercial entities.


He divides his time between Dubai, Zurich and Paris.

Did money feature in your childhood?

When we went to Switzerland in 2003, we fled from the Iraq war. Since we were refugees in Switzerland, we grew up very poor. We never really had enough money, even for food sometimes or for clothes or whatever. So, we grew up very harsh, I would say.

What did you learn from that experience?
To be very humble. It means to appreciate whatever we have right now. I appreciate everything still, even if it is $1 or $10, because we never had that, or did not have enough when I was small. So, I learnt to appreciate everything else around me.

How did you discover Bitcoin?
I was 11 when I first started buying Bitcoin. Basically, my parents were arguing at home, and it was about sending money to my grandmother because she was sick and needed an operation.

We did not have enough money, but the second issue was that the only way to send money to Iraq's Kurdish region back then was through a weird way, as there were no proper banks there.

So, the only way was to give cash to someone who was flying to Iraq's Kurdish region, and they would hand over the cash to my grandmother. But the person does it for a lot of other people. Because of the risk, it was expensive; I am talking about 12 years ago, 13 years ago and it was kind of the standard to do that.

CONCLUSION
I was searching for a different solution and just Googled in German and English: “What other options are there to make money transfers?”

And that's how I came up with Bitcoin. When I figured out how to buy it, I started to sell my toys outside on the street and gave the cash to my father. I then used his credit cards and bought my first 10 Bitcoin for about €15 each ($16.28).