It’s the Thursday before the holiday break, and Jeremy Gardner is making latkes—or at least he’s trying to. The 25-year-old Bitcoin millionaire is bopping around the tidy kitchen of his self-described “Crypto Castle”— a three-story Potrero Hill rental with sweeping views of the Bay Area and a reputation as a raucous haunt for crypto investors—simultaneously fielding emails, sipping $100 Balvenie scotch (iced with a single, oversized cube), and texting his mom to ask for cooking instructions. He has a lot to do before he leaves for Thailand around midnight: He is hosting a dinner party for his friends and fellow crypto-enthusiast roommates—all half dozen of them. Though I’m the only journalist physically present in his home, I am just one of three who Gardner plans to speak to tonight. It is also his mission, in his words, to “get as drunk as possible” so he can pass out on his flight.
But the most complicated task of the evening, right up there with locating flour in his own kitchen and monitoring the price of a Chinese cryptocurrency he’s hoping to sell soon, is assembling a hand mixer that he ordered from Amazon. Gardner has spent the past few years jet-setting to and from glamorous, club-friendly cities like Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Miami, making the most of his Bitcoin fortune. As such, he doesn’t frequently cook; he estimates that he lives at home only about “30 percent of the time.” Hence this brand-new home appliance.
Gardner rolls up the sleeves of his purple, ripped-at-the-collar sweater, opens the box, and lays at least seven different plastic-wrapped parts on the kitchen counter, as bass-heavy dance music blares. I watch from my seat at the bar. To my left is a foam roller, and a long wooden walking stick that leans against the counter. To my right, next to the drink he made me, is Gardner’s credit card atop a mound of designer pot products.
Gardner fumbles to connect the plastic mixer shapes, occasionally muttering frustrated obscenities to himself.
“Did it come with instructions?” I ask.
“I don’t believe in instructions,” Gardner replies reflexively, with a little bit of Scotch in his voice. Almost on cue, he snaps the correct extension into the base of the mixer. “I’m good at figuring out that stuff,” he adds, breaking into a momentary self-satisfied smile and plunging the mixer into a bowl of shredded potato.
Not that you could tell from his relaxed attitude, but I was visiting Gardner amid one of Bitcoin’s most valuable and volatile runs. “It goes up and it goes down,” Gardner says. “I don’t pay any mind to it.” The cryptocurrency’s value jumped from around $9,600 on November 27 to an unimaginable high of $19,843 on December 18, and then back down again. (That Thursday, it was hovering at around $16,000.) Casual stock market rubberneckers have written off the obscene spike as a temporary, inflated valuation for an intangible asset that, by the way, cannot be used to purchase basic adult necessities like groceries or car insurance. But for many of the millennial investors who bet big on cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s successful year was, if nothing else, a ticket to a new tax bracket. What was once a form of currency best known for its ability to anonymously purchase illicit materials on the dark web has gone mainstream with the help of a multiplying group of cryptocurrency startups like Coinbase and SpectroCoin. As a result, Silicon Valley has become home to yet another new subset of wealthy young millennials, with the large personalities and unexpected living arrangements to match.
Gardner has become notorious among these new cryptocurrency barons for his early success with Bitcoin, and for his willingness to play into the indulgent, overconfident Burner bro persona. He is also the cofounder of Augur, a prediction market that allows people to bet on events like elections or sports games and has raised $5.3 million in funding. Many a profile has taken place inside the walls of “the so-called Crypto Castle” that Gardner put down a $20,000 security deposit for in 2015. It’s not actually a castle, just a Spanish-tiled home—with gorgeous panoramic views—that functions as a living and working space for whomever Gardner feels fits. Thanks to its revolving door of young, hungry crypto-savvy residents, it has become a kind of ground zero for the Bay Area’s Bitcoin movement—a place where a barbecue can morph into a founder’s meeting two hot dogs in.
The perks of living there appeal to a certain kind of recent college graduate. It comes equipped with a fully stocked bar, a balcony hot tub, a full-size hookah, and a stripper pole in at least one bedroom. There are occasional hints of Bitcoin evangelism strewn about the place: trade magazines like Distributed sit in the living room, and the freezer is branded with a variety of crypto-company stickers. Gardner can fill a vacancy within a couple of days, and typically gives priority to anyone who can pay him in Bitcoin and passes his “heavy vetting.” “Usually they’re all people I’m connected to,” Gardner says. “And then people that are clean and fun and like to party.” What does partying mean for your average castle-dweller? Take the itinerary that former resident Sean Ironstag, the founder of an AI-and-blockchain-focused venture fund, Auryn Capital, posted on the home’s Facebook page on December 31, 2016.
Pregaming at the Crypto Castle, then off to Eye Heart New Year's Eve at Fort Mason to dance this new era into existence (will have a table in the VIP area, for those that wish to find us (ping me). DAYBREAKER at sunrise (because dancing in the light of a new era)! Then off Archimedes Banya for some next day restorative spa time, followed by saline/mineral IV drips at the Castle for complete refreshment?
Previous residents have gone on to become big names in the blockchain and entrepreneurial communities or, at least, get quite rich. They include Vitalik Buterin, the 23-year-old cofounder of Ethereum (now the world’s second-most-valuable cryptocurrency); George Hotz, an iPhone hacker who cofounded the autonomous-car startup Comma.ai in the home’s garage; and a handful of bankers turned crypto-investors. Encountering smart people like them, Gardner says, has made him happy to remain the ringleader.
“I have the total freedom to buy a super-luxurious apartment and go live by myself,” he said. “But I have no interest in that. I’d much rather be surrounded by super-interesting people. I’ve learned in my short time on this planet that being surrounded by super-interesting people makes you a lot of money. That’s the world of Silicon Valley—that if you spend enough time here, you will totally manage to make money. I don’t know anyone who’s worked in Silicon Valley for a long time, worked in tech, and not made at least a million dollars. Not that a million dollars is really a metric for success anymore.”
Gardner built his nest egg from tumultuous but ultimately charmed beginnings. As a teenager, he was kicked out of his private boarding school in Andover, New Hampshire, for something that he would prefer to “save for his memoir.” Eventually he made it to Bard, where he developed his own major in political strategy, inspired by his childhood obsession with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. He eventually transferred to the University of Michigan, where he met a Bitcoin entrepreneur who convinced him to invest the $200,000 he had to start with. Gardner bought his first batch in 2013, when it was valued at about $200 a coin. Or, as he wrote in a reflective Hacker Noon post this month, he “tripped and fell deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.” Since then, he has drifted to and fro in the industry. His interest in blockchain—a system that allows electronic cash to be exchanged securely among strangers without the need for a centralized authority—led him to cofound Augur in 2014, but he is no longer a part of the outward-facing leadership team there. Along the way, he has collected a handful of advisory and “entrepreneur-in-residence” gigs at Bitcoin-related startups.
In its short existence before 2013, Bitcoin was still a fringe payment system—popular enough to be given the Good Wife treatment, but mystifying to most non-native internet users. That October, the cryptocurrency gained widespread notoriety in the form of a scandal: The FBI seized an estimated 26,000 Bitcoins during the arrest of Ross Ulbrich, the owner of a dark web drug and weapons market called the Silk Road. (It was actually a Rolling Stone profile of the site that first introduced Gardner to the concept of Bitcoin.) The following year delivered yet another scandal, this time in the form of a major theft at one of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox. (The company’s former head would later be accused of embezzling funds.) Amid all of these headlines, banks and governments set to work regulating the currency via courts and financial regulations, smoothing over the use of the cryptocurrency so it could become a tool of nimble fintech startups rather than criminals. All the while, Bitcoin’s value remained unpredictable, hovering just below $1,000 before it spiked in 2017. Its latest rally not only makes Gardner richer; it has also, in his eyes, proved his thesis that the digital currency is “a million-dollar asset.”
Gardner has acknowledged that his quick accumulation of wealth had a lot to do with timing, and also luck. “I am, uncomfortably, going to admit that I have inherent advantages, granted not by virtue of talent, or hard work, but by being born to the right parents, at the right time, with the right people surrounding me,” he wrote in a May 2016 Medium post titled “The Sum of Who I Am.”
Like most 25-year-olds, he appears to be coming to terms with his identity. But even if Gardner hasn’t quite figured it out for himself, his life thus far speaks to a certain kind of nonsensical tech industry success. He is a very rich guy who was wealthy enough to risk a lot of money on a fussy currency without mortgaging his home. He is living atop a steep San Francisco hill in a luxury rental he unironically refers to as a castle, subsidizing a lifestyle of bottle service and gourmet meals with a digital currency that cannot realistically pay for any of those things in real life. Who knows if Bitcoin will be the freeing, highly functional currency that its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, had dreamed it would be? (Some have argued that the financial infrastructure built around it negates its original purpose entirely.) One thing’s for sure: Before Bitcoin ever managed to benefit the masses, it has made people like Gardner incredibly rich. Both his existence and people’s fascination with him represent a new era of Silicon Valley–brand Gordon Gekkos. The only fundamental difference between Wall Street and crypto-millionaires is that the latter group still insists it’s helping make the world a better place.
To that point, Gardner is the kind of person who will tell you how little he cares about money one minute, but then profess that it’s his goal to become a billionaire the next. With that much money, he says could fully dedicate his life to philanthropy, especially his “favorite form of philanthropy”: investing in startups. (Current ventures include Basecoin, Breathometer, and Sensay.) He’s also the founder and chairman of the Blockchain Education Network, a nonprofit meant to empower students to collaborate over their own crypto-inspired business ideas. It’s all part of his role as a self-appointed “blockchain booster,” a kind of goodwill ambassador for the technology who sings its praises wherever he goes. In an interview with Business Insider in August, he said that part of that responsibility includes partying with his crypto-investor peers.
“As I've seen my wealth grow, it's important to me that I give back to this industry that's given me so much,” he said. “So when we go to conferences, I'll bring a bunch of people out and buy bottles at the club, pay for dinner and stuff.”
Long before Bitcoin’s value began to climb into tuition territory, Gardner says he put away “enough to pay for my children’s education and retirement tomorrow.” Still, he keeps about 90 percent of his fortune in cryptocurrencies—something he claims is easy to do, considering his life expenses are modest. Depending on how many roommates he takes in that month, he says his rent for the castle’s master bedroom is a little less than $1,000. He has a deal with a driver who gives him $15 ride credits for $3 worth of Bitcoin. A flight attendant friend frequently hooks him up with discounted or free flights. He mostly spends his money on nice meals and clubbing.
Gardner tries to avoid all the nervous energy that gathers around record-setting Bitcoin spikes. Sure, he’s still investing in lesser cryptocurrencies, he tells me while cracking eggs, and sometimes coordinating the sale of a position with his over-the-counter trade guy can be stressful in a market as volatile as nail polish remover. The day I visit, he is particularly anxious about the aformentioned Chinese cryptocurrency that he originally bought at 10 cents a token, but had spiked at $70. He had hoped to cash in on his investment today, but schedules didn’t align, and before he could do it, it dropped down to $55 again. “I was like, fuck, I’m going to wait a little bit,” he said. “And so that makes me nervous just around the time of the sale.” Otherwise, he assures me, he will never be one of those guys glued to their phone, with his heart palpitating at every little dip.
“It’s so unhealthy,” he exclaims, separating the egg white from the yolk as the bass drops on a new song. “It’s an obsession! I’ve been in this industry so long. I’ve seen these guys who, in 2013, they were doing the same thing they were doing now. Every five minutes they’re checking the price on their phone. It’s like, how many hours of their life, days of their life have they lost just looking at the price of Bitcoin? Having no control over what direction it moves.”
Gardner says he hasn’t sold a single Bitcoin in “well over a year.” He’s so confident in the cryptocurrency’s underlying blockchain technology that he has sworn not to sell his stash until Bitcoin reaches $1 million.
“Do I think it could go 90 percent within the next 12 months?” he says, taking a sip of his scotch. “100 percent. But I think in five years if it’s still around, will it be worth exponentially more? Yeah.”
But tonight, Gardner’s not thinking about that. He’s thinking about frying the mounds of potatoes he’s spent the past hour throwing together. Soon a group of beautiful women arrive with alcohol and Whole Foods provisions in tow. A handful of fellow castle dwellers wander into the kitchen after them, to start making drinks. Stray containers of caviar make their way around the room alongside the first batch of latkes. I take that as my cue to order a Lyft, walking out to the street with $100 scotch on my breath. Seconds later, my ride pulls up: a shiny white Tesla.
The next morning, I wake up to see that the value of Bitcoin has dropped by more than $3,000. How much money did Gardner lose while he was “passed out” somewhere above the ocean in the Eastern Hemisphere? I emailed him to thank him for hosting me at the castle and ventured to ask: Wasn’t he just a little bit anxious about this most recent loss?
“Pleasure having you,” he wrote back a day later. “Nothing has changed about the underlying blockchain technology, so I'm not worried about the price ;).” At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $14,290. Gardner has only $985,710 to go.
This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Gardner’s advisory and “entrepreneur-in-residence” roles are sometimes paid.