Bitcoin

Bitcoiner raises orange flag on Mount Everest

The 23-year-old cryptocurrency user presented an orange flag with the Bitcoin (BTC) logo for observers to see from the summit of Mount Everest, 8,849 meters above sea level.

In a May 23 X post, Dadvan Yousuf announced that he had climbed the world’s highest mountain and reached the summit on May 20. Surrounded by Sherpas and his fellow climbers, he spent time at the summit showing off the Kurds and the Kurdish flag. BTC logo.

“Interestingly enough, other climbers have been asking about memecoin pepe and the best place to buy it is the highest place on earth,” Yousuf’s spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “The Sherpas were enthusiastic about the principles of Bitcoin and were visibly happy.”

May 20th at the top of Mount Everest. Source: Dadvan Yousuf

Yousuf said the expedition was intended to highlight “the global gap in access to financial education.” The Bitcoin miner, who was born in Iraq and currently has operations in Dubai, had a reported net worth of over $300 million as of January 2022.

Overtourism has become a growing problem on Everest over the past two decades. As the summit first appeared on social media, many beginners or inexperienced climbers were left unprepared for the harsh conditions.

Yousuf reported that it took about 50 days to reach the summit, giving Bitcoiners time to adjust to the thin air. More than 7,000 climbers have reached the summit since Sir Edmund Hillary first climbed it in 1953, but more than 300 have been reported to have died.

“I fell twice on the Hillary Steps and almost died several times,” Yousuf told Cointelegraph. “During the expedition, I almost lost a finger to frostbite. “I owe a lot to the Sherpas who helped me,” he said.

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Cryptocurrency users haven’t always attempted heights as high as Everest, but some have promoted their digital assets during their climbs. In 2023, a mountaineer partially funded his trip to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania using Bitcoin in an effort to raise awareness about financial literacy. In 2018, three individuals placed Ledger wallets on the summit of Everest. The wallet was not visible in the video Yousuf provided to Cointelegraph.

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, the price of Bitcoin at the time of publication was $67,879. The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $73,738 on March 14.

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