Ryan Trahan’s latest penny challenge raised $400,000 for Water.org

Ryan Trahan successfully made it back to America in just one week, starting from one penny.

And he raised more than $400,000 for Water.org in the process.

For those of you new to Trahan’s one-cent adventures, they’ve been a staple on his YouTube channel (where he has 13 million subscribers) for years. He’s lived on a penny for days, traded a penny up to a house, and, last summer, he made it from Los Angeles to North Carolina in 30 days to deliver a giant penny to MrBeast, while raising over $1.3 million for Feeding America.

This latest penny challenge started in Paris, where Trahan had one penny and seven days to get back to the U.S.

A flight straight from Paris to New York City was around £800 minimum–way out of his price range–so he ended up selling water, drawing caricatures, washing windows, and telling jokes to make his way to Amsterdam, then London, and finally to Dublin, where he caught a £200 flight through Toronto to NYC.

Like he did with last year’s 30-day challenge, Trahan offered incentives for generous donors, including The Great Reset that dropped him back to one cent if anyone donated $50,000 in one lump sum. New incentives included 24-hour immunity from The Great Reset for $50,001 (secured for him by Smart Prop Trader on day 3) and a 30-second ad read for anyone who donated $100,000.

MrBeast ended up donating the hundo, snagging a shout-out for Feastables. Trahan did get reset once thanks to PrestonPlayz, but by then he was already safe in Toronto’s airport, awaiting his last flight home.

At press time, Trahan’s fundraiser has brought in $409,531 for Water.org, which Water.org says will help give nearly 82,000 people lasting access to clean water.