Bitcoin’s Biggest Lost Fortunes: 8 Costly Mistakes Owners Can Never Undo

There are only 21 million $BTC, and some of the coins that are now in circulation have been lost, misplaced, or thrown away by their owners. These coins will never be moved again, despite the fact that they are worth a lot of money; they are essentially permanently out of reach. These stories are just as noteworthy as those of people who have made fortunes by holding bitcoin all this time, and the following is a closer look at some of bitcoin’s most unfortunate stories.

James Howells and the Landfill Hard Drive

Back in the early days, Howells said he was mining $BTC in 2009, and the Newport, Wales resident, threw out his laptop’s hard drive at a landfill when he was cleaning the house. The catch; his private keys were inside the drive, which held an estimated 7,500 to 8,000 $BTC. That’s around $578 million of value using current bitcoin prices. Howells’ story is one of the most famous of the bunch due to the fact that he spent more than a decade trying to get permission to excavate the site, and he never succeeded.

Stefan Thomas and His 2 Guesses

Thomas was a programmer who decided to store his private key on an encrypted Ironkey USB drive. He lost the paper, which stored his password to bypass the encrypted wallet to access 7,002 $BTC worth around $540 million. The Ironkey gives the user ten chances to get the password correct, and Thomas has unfortunately already blasted through eight guesses, leaving only two left. Reports say he’s stopped guessing and decided to stop rather than risk the last two.