A Costly Mistake
In a heartbreaking turn of events, a UK programmer accidentally discarded a hard drive containing the private keys to 7,500 Bitcoins—now valued at approximately $2.6 billion (¥17 billion RMB). The hardware was mistakenly tossed during a house cleanup, landing in a local landfill.
Key Details:
- Year Lost: 2013 (Bitcoin price: ~$100)
- Current Value: ~$350,000 per Bitcoin (as of 2025)
- Recovery Attempts: Crowdfunded £7.4 million to excavate the landfill, but authorities denied permission due to environmental risks.
How It Happened
James Howells, the programmer, mined the Bitcoins between 2009–2013. After selling his mining rig, he kept only the hard drive. During a cleanup, he threw it away, unaware of its future value.
The Irony:
- Bitcoin’s price soared 200x after 2013, peaking at $20,089 in 2017.
- The landfill now holds 5 tons of annual waste, making recovery nearly impossible.
Other Notable Bitcoin Losses
Irish Drug Dealer Case:
- Lost a fish竿 box containing passwords to 12 wallets (worth $59M).
- Landlord trashed it while he was in prison.
Global Statistics:
- 3.7M Bitcoins inactive for 5+ years.
- ~3M presumed permanently lost (Chainalysis, 2020).
Can Lost Bitcoin Be Recovered?
3 Potential Methods:
1. Hacker-Assisted Recovery
- Success Rate: 95%
- Cost: $500–$2,500
- Example: A researcher retrieved Bitcoins from a Trezor wallet bug via a hired hacker.
2. Brute-Force Cracking
- Success Rate: 30%
- Cost: 20% of recovered assets.
- Uses software to generate millions of password guesses.
3. Hypnosis
- Success Rate: 50%
- Fee: 1 Bitcoin + 5% of recovered funds.
- Controversial but documented.
👉 Learn how to secure your crypto assets
Lessons Learned
- Secure Storage: Use encrypted wallets and physical backups.
- Legal Barriers: Governments may block recovery efforts over environmental concerns.
- Timing Matters: Early adopters often underestimate future value.
FAQs
Q: How many Bitcoins are lost forever?
A: An estimated 3 million.
Q: What’s the most common cause of loss?
A: Forgotten passwords/hardware failures (37% of cases).
Q: Can landfills be mined for crypto?
A: Rarely—legal and logistical hurdles prevail.
References:
- CNBC (2017). Man Loses $127M in Bitcoins.
- Zhihu (2021). Recovering Lost Crypto.
- Weibo (2020). Bitcoin Storage Fails.