![]() ![]() One such example is a wallet linked to Silk Road, the infamous illicit black market that used Bitcoin as its primary payment method.ĭespite Silk Road being shut down by law enforcement in 2012, and its founder, Ross Ulbricht, still serving two life sentences in prison, there was significant movement in 2020 from the wallet. For example, some people have been arrested for illegal activities, preventing them from using their wallets, only for those wallets to be accessed at some point in the future. These wallets might be lost and inaccessible, but it can be challenging to definitively say this as they might not be lost at all instead, someone could be holding onto them.Īdditionally, these wallets might lie dormant for other reasons. For instance, there are many wallets in the Bitcoin realm that hold substantial wealth and have not had transactions leaving them for years. The anonymous (or at least pseudonymous) nature of cryptocurrency means that obtaining these details is not always easy. Stories like this also serve as an excellent cautionary tale about the dangers of misplacing crypto details. To some extent, one could argue that crypto losses due to inaccessibility are a significant part of the industry, as most people are not accustomed to managing their own money without the assistance of intermediaries or third parties. With this in mind, let's examine the largest lost Bitcoin wallet and see just how much of BTC's circulating supply resides in it. That being said, even in more recent years, some people have made the mistake of misplacing or losing their storage details. ![]() Therefore, there are likely many people who mined or stored Bitcoin early on without seriously considering how they should maintain its accessibility. In fact, it was not until 2013 that Bitcoin even reached three figures, which means that during its formative years, it was worth very little. While it may seem unusual to think that someone would be so careless as to lose their wallet access details (such as their private key or mnemonic phrase), it is important to remember that Bitcoin spent many years being worth under $1000. However, not everyone recognizes the sheer scale and magnitude of wealth lost because of this. We all know that if you do not have the correct details to access a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, then you will never be able to retrieve the money inside. But what is the largest lost Bitcoin wallet out there? While many of these are safe and sound in people's wallets or resting on exchanges like Binance or Coinbase, a large quantity are likely stuck in wallets with no one knowing how to access them. At the time of writing, around 19 million Bitcoins have been mined, however, that does not mean all of them are actually accessible. ![]()
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