Cryptocurrencies have always been tricky to store, and as a result, many people have lost their assets. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is also the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin’s privacy features have also resulted in several holders losing their assets.
According to new reports, an Irish citizen lost almost $60 million Bitcoin after losing his private BTC wallet keys. The man was also convicted for marijuana-growing case.
Clifton Collins had purchased his first Bitcoin back in 2011 when the price was very low. As years progressed and Bitcoin hit its peak value, people like Clifton hit big and became millionaires overnight. Collins had kept the access codes of his Bitcoin wallet inside the fishing rod, which was then missing.
Collins bought his bitcoin from the money he had made by selling marijuana from his own farm. After he realized that the Bitcoin he owned was of great value, Collings divided his assets into 12 different accounts. Each of the 12 accounts had almost $6 million in it. Collings then continued to list the keys to all 12 accounts on the A4 sheet he had concealed inside his fishing rod in Co Galway.
The fishing rod was one of the items he lost when there was a break-in at his house in 2017. During this time, Collins was serving a five-year term in jail for the illegal possession of marijuana. The authorities have tried to trace the lost goods but sources stated that the trash had been sent to either Germany or China to be incinerated.
Once the case was registered, the Criminal Assets Bureau [CAB] of Ireland located the accounts but they were worthless without the access codes. Officers have said that the advancement of technology might result in a way to recover the lost keys.
The CAB also revealed that the $60 million-plus worth of assets was the single largest haul in the agency’s history. Efforts are still being made to locate Collins’ stolen items, but as the days go by the odds have only increased. The owner of the lost Bitcoin has admitted that the lost codes were his own fault. He mentioned on record that the loss was a “result of his own stupidity”.
This is not the first time that users have lost their Bitcoin assets as several cases were reported earlier. The phenomenon hit a peak during December 2017 when Bitcoin reached its all-time high price point. Many holders were devastated when they realized that they had lost their private keys which could turn them into potential millionaires.
Source: The Irish Times