I might be missing something—how is this related to crowd funding?

Buy stock low, sell it high?

It's all gambling. Sometimes you know you can beat the game. Sometimes it's for fun. People shouldn't get depressed when they miss a wacky investment that pays off big. Plenty of people lose their shirts doing that.

The article mentions that exactly, "He bought some for fun, then forgot about it."

Fair play to him for doing so! I guess he must have been in luck when the topic for his thesis lead him to Bitcoin. I bet he's glad he studied!

I had read that ~$300 investments may become mainstream; with such an investment, the investor is probably hoping for an equivalent outcome.