Top 5 Biggest Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortunes

Introduction

Due to the nature of cryptocurrencies like Unclaimed Bitcoin, only the owner must hold and secure the currency. No bank or private organisation can recover forgotten wallet passwords. The New York Times estimates that 20% of the 18.5 million Bitcoins in circulation are stored in lost wallets. The value of the remaining Bitcoin has increased in part due to this.

Like people lose email accounts or outdated photos saved on computers, these fortunes are also gone. You name it: lost hardware passwords, hardware issues, hardware replacement. Holding irresponsibly carries a significant risk of human mistakes.

Here are the top 5 most enormous unclaimed Bitcoin fortunes

Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortune No. 1 – Satoshi Nakamoto’s Wallet

The fabled Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto has a renowned Bitcoin fortune that they have been hoarding since the beginning. Many theories have been put up as to why Satoshi took this action and left the Bitcoin community just as it was beginning to gain widespread recognition.

New research from 2020 indicates that the amount of Bitcoin in Satoshi’s wallet may have been slightly more than the estimated 1.1 million. Whether Satoshi will ever access their massive wealth is still up for discussion. A situation like that would undoubtedly jolt Bitcoin’s foundation. The enigmatic, presumably selfless originator of Bitcoin, is at the centre of many of the myths, lore, and values on which the currency is based.

Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortune No. 2 – Stefan Thomas and the Lost Password

Earlier this year, Stefan Thomas’s story generated much media attention.

A misplaced Bitcoin wallet that the San Francisco software developer just forgot the password to had an estimated $220 million. In 2011, Stefan bought 7,002 Bitcoins after hopping on the hype train. Stefan kept his Bitcoin wallet on an IronKey USB drive, and he made a total of ten tries to open the key without the password.

Stefan made eight attempts to break into his USB storage before turning to social media and newspaper articles for help.  Since then, Stefan has “made peace” with his financial setback.

Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortune No. 3 – The Buried Treasure of James Howells

James Howells, a native of the UK, lost his 7,500 BTC Bitcoin wealth in 2013 after he unintentionally tossed away an old laptop after mistaking it for an old-fashioned one. He had kept his wallet on the hard disc of the computer. James was permitted to search for the laptop in a landfill in the Welsh town and promised the Newport town council a 25% cut of the wallet’s contents if he did. In addition, he donated an additional 50 million British pounds to help COVID-19 pandemic victims.

Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortune No. 4 – The Disappearance of Gerald Cotten

Gerald Cotten, a Canadian investor, is most known for helping to start QuadrigaCX, a bitcoin exchange. This movie-quality narrative is about a whale. In 2013, upon his graduation from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Gerald launched QuadrigaCX.

Gerald first gave off the impression that his company was run honestly. Gerald, though, was managing the exchange alone from behind the scenes. Due to banks’ lack of a bitcoin management system at the time, Quadriga had no official bank accounts. The more you investigate this matter, the more murky methods of money transmission and the inner workings of Quadriga become. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released detailed information on the occurrence.

Unclaimed Bitcoin Fortune No. 5 – Individual X Marks the Spot

One day in 2018, some resourceful hackers stumbled into the seventh-largest Bitcoin wallet in the world, which initially had about 69,000 Bitcoins. The wallet has been handed over numerous times since that time, each time to a hacker who unsuccessfully attempts to gain access to it. Many thought the informal tournament was a scam because of its clandestine nature.

Alon Gal, the head of technology of Hudson Rock, obtained the wallet in September 2020 and shared the information with Twitter users via a tweet. Alon revealed to Motherboard interviewers in 2020 that buying wallets with vast amounts of money inside them and selling them to other hackers. They believed their technology could crack the encryption was a frequent practice on hacker forums. The US law department filed a legal complaint shortly after a Bitcoin.com post claimed they now controlled the wallet.