Good day everyone,
I hope you are all having a good day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be looking at some of the most notable lost bitcoin wallets.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Wallet
Known as the Genesis wallet, this Bitcoin wallet was created by the infamous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. The wallet holds just under one hundred Bitcoins from the max 21 million supply, and they have remained untouched since they were originally mined. The wallet is the first ever created for Bitcoin, and the general consensus is that this wallet will never be touched. While Satoshi could still be holding the private keys for the wallet, it was way back in December 2010 when he disappeared and the wallet only contained 50 Bitcoin at the time. The amount in the wallet rose over the years, and in January 2024 an unknown user sent 26.9 Bitcoin, worth $1.17 million at the time, to the network’s Genesis wallet. This saw the supply within the wallet rise to 99.67 Bitcoin. All in all it is estimated that Satoshi Nakamoto holds around 1.1 million Bitcoin throughout their wallets.
Mt. Gox Hack
At the time Mt. Gox was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges around when it began operations in 2010. The exchange was the go to location for people to store and exchange Bitcoin, but while the Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange was responsible for around 70% of all Bitcoin transactions at the time, it suffered a series of serious hacks. The exchange declared bankruptcy in 2014 but their issues began in 2011. Hackers managed to steal credentials to transfer Bitcoins which resulted in thousands of Bitcoin's and Bitcoin cash being lost. In early February 2014, the exchange suspended withdrawals after claiming to have found suspicious activity in its digital wallets as they discovered they had lost 650,000 to 850,000 Bitcoin. Repayments to creditors has been a long and ongoing process, with the announcement that users will finally be reimbursed happening this year. Fear has emerged that this will destabilise the market, but for those who have waited a decade for their funds, it is a timely boost following years of struggles.
Stefan Thomas’s Forgotten Password
A German programmer named Stefan Thomas lost a piece of paper contained the password to his Bitcoin fortune back in 2011. He had approximately 7,002 Bitcoin stored in an IronKey password protected hard drive. The device allows the user a total of 10 attempts to unlock the device before it become inaccessible. Stefan has a mere 2 attempts remaining to access his fortune, which is worth around $400 million at todays prices. While he is yet to crack the code, he has admitted to purchasing new Bitcoin's since and still holds them to this day. However he will still be determined to unlock his device and receive his millions.
James Howells’ Discarded Hard Drive
A British man by the name of James Howell managed to accidently discard a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin back in 2013. The IT engineer has been desperately looking for ways to recover it ever since, and has repeatedly been turned down by Newport council in an attempt to excavate the landfill site where he believes the hard drive lies. He is so convinced that the hard drive is intact within the landfill he has pledged to donate 25% of any funds retrieved from the hard drive to various schemes in the local community.
However, the council have repeatedly told Mr. Howell that excavation of the landfill site is "not possible under our environmental permit, and that work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area." The council is the only body allowed to excavate on the site, but Howell has a plan to take the potential 1.4 million tonnes from the landfill and place them on a conveyor belt which would allow AI to scan for the hard drive. Mr. Howell has argued that the council's environmental concerns over the site being dug up were unnecessary, but so far he remains in limbo over the potential return of his 8,000 Bitcoin, worth around $450 million at today's prices.
QuadrigaCX Exchange’s Lost Keys
The infamous Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX was once Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange. In 2018 that all changed as its founder, Gerald Cotten, died in December 2018 aged just 30 years old. His death saw the passcodes that locked about $250 million of users funds go to the grave with him, and ever since there has been suspicion and doubt over whether or not he really passed away.
Investigators uncovered that Cotten had been moving money from the exchange into his personal account along with engaging in other suspicious behaviour prior to his death. His surviving widow, Jennifer Robertson, noted how she was unaware of the widespread fraud her husband had committed. After her husbands death she agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets, including vehicles and real estate. It is said Cotton ran the exchange like a Ponzi scheme, and his sudden death from Crohn's disease also raised many questions.
Many have been left without their funds, and there are rumours that Cotton is still alive somewhere living off the stolen funds.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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