I lost half a million pound on Bitcoin – Now I think more needs to be done to help gambling

Around that time, some offshore cryptocurrency exchanges started offering their users the ability to trade Bitcoin derivatives - which are contracts that traders can enter that then allow them to bet on Bitcoin’s future price.

But they come with little restriction, as even inexperienced traders could take out high-risk or high-reward contracts.

It didn't take long for the ill-fated trader to lose everything.

Just one bet on a short-term Bitcoin price move wiped them out, and on top of that a further play of bad trades and inexperience saw another £18,000 go down the drain.

They said: "Ultimately, the kind of trading I was doing was just gambling. Exchanges feel no obligation to protect their customers. I finally stopped in late 2020, when they blocked my accounts."

But by that time just over £123,800 in deposits had been lost with no way of recovering the losses.

With luck, investors can see their fortunes grow by investing in cryptocurrency, but that's never guaranteed.

Just like this trader, many others lose their cash too.

Experts have weighed in on the safety of Bitcoin in the past.

Money saving expert, Martin Lewis has before warned of how it can be easily lost.

He said: "Like gold it can be stolen, and cryptocurrency is a bit like an equivalent to gold as it's a store of value of what people are putting in. You have to be very careful."

The currency isn't regulated either, and that means if something goes wrong you have no way to make a complaint or get compensated for any money lost.

Cryptocurrencies themselves are only regulated in the UK for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.