A story recently made me rethink the perception of early crypto investors. A Swiss man named Dadvan Yousuf has now become a rather controversial figure in the industry.

His background is actually quite unique. Born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999, his father was a Peshmerga fighter who fled to Switzerland before he was born. Three years later, his mother took the three boys and moved there, arriving in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 2003. Despite this background, he developed a strong interest in finance and crypto.

What’s truly interesting is his investment story. At age 11, he sold toys to save up for Bitcoin, making his first investment of 10 BTC at a cost of just 15 euros. Later, in 2012, he heavily increased his holdings, buying 1,000 Bitcoin for 11,126 euros. By 2016, he shifted focus to Ethereum, purchasing 16,000 ETH with a total investment of 134,000 euros. These early investments quickly made him a multimillionaire and earned him the label of "Switzerland’s youngest self-made billionaire."

He is not just an investor. In early 2021, he founded the Dohrnii Foundation, claiming to have developed an algorithm-based automated crypto trading software capable of analyzing data to predict price fluctuations. That same year, he also acquired Crowdlitoken, a Liechtenstein startup focused on real estate tokenization investments. After the acquisition, he became CEO and joined the board. In 2021, he was listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30, at just 21 years old.

But the story started to get more complicated. In early 2022, media began investigating his business activities, reporting allegations of irregular trading practices. He then sued two Swiss TV journalists for defamation. By August 2024, the Zurich Higher Court ruled that those journalists could not substantiate their claims, and in October, the court held the TV station legally responsible for the first time, ordering them to pay his legal fees of 10,676 Swiss francs.

But that was not the end. In November, the TV station issued a statement defending the journalists, prompting Yousuf to file a new defamation lawsuit seeking 13 million Swiss francs. The station subsequently removed the controversial sections from the original article and changed the headline.

Meanwhile, Swiss financial regulators also kept an eye on him. In May 2022, the Dohrnii Foundation was investigated for conducting unlicensed regulated activities, including operating as a securities firm. In February 2023, he resigned as CEO, and the foundation was dissolved in June of the same year. Now, the Bern Public Security Department has been conducting a criminal investigation against him since 2023.

This story is quite thought-provoking. From a refugee family’s child who became a millionaire through early crypto investments, to facing regulatory scrutiny and legal disputes—Dadvan Yousuf’s experience almost encapsulates a decade of drama in the crypto industry.