Bitcoins Believed to Have Been Lost for 10 Years Have Resurfaced: They Belonged to a $300 Million Whale

An unusual development has attracted attention in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoins that were thought to have been lost for about 10 years have reappeared, and a significant transfer was made from wallets belonging to an Irish criminal.

According to on-chain data, a person named Clifton Collins deposited 500 $BTC (approximately $35.44 million) into Coinbase about 13 hours ago. It was thought that these Bitcoins had been inactive for many years and might have been lost.

It is known that Collins purchased a total of 6,000 $BTC between 2011 and 2012 with proceeds from illegal activities and divided these assets across multiple wallets. However, following his arrest in 2017, the house where Collins’ belongings were kept was emptied, and it was revealed that his personal items were sent to a landfill. This led to speculation that he had permanently lost access to those Bitcoins.

However, the latest transfer showed that funds long thought to be inaccessible were not actually lost entirely. According to data from the on-chain analytics platform Arkham, there are 14 different addresses associated with Collins, holding a total of approximately 5,500 $BTC (approximately $391 million) in assets.

*This is not investment advice.