- A man named Stefan Thomas has a crypto wallet containing $232 million worth of bitcoins.
- Thomas stored his bitcoins in a digital wallet and he wrote his password on a piece of paper.
- The wallet’s password is lost and Thomas has attempted 8 out of 10 tries to retrieve his bitcoins.
Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, must be one of the earliest bitcoiners who is now filthy rich. In fact, his crypto wallet alone has bitcoins (BTC) worth $232 million today.
Now, Thomas only needs to do one thing: retrieve his password to access his account. But he needs to get the right password because he only has two remaining attempts to do so before his wallet is lost from him forever.
Thomas received 7,002 bitcoins when they were only worth $5 each in exchange for creating a video demonstrating how Bitcoin operates. He immediately stored his bitcoins in a digital wallet. Thomas kept the wallet’s private keys on a password-protected tiny hard drive but that password was scribbled down on a sheet of paper and regrettably misplaced.
According to Thomas, he would lie in bed and think about it. Thomas told The New York Times that he would go to the computer with some new strategy, which wouldn’t work, and he would be desperate again. Surprisingly, this is not the first time someone has misplaced a Bitcoin valued at millions of dollars.
James Howells, a Welshman, unintentionally tossed away a hard drive containing almost $265 million worth of Bitcoin. Howells continues to look at the nearby dump in the hopes of someday discovering his hard drive.
In other news, cryptocurrencies ended February with a bit of gain after a substantial rise started in 2023. Notably, the second-largest cryptocurrency on the market, Ether (ETH-USD), outperformed its giant peer Bitcoin (BTC-USD), in February, climbing 1.6% instead of Bitcoin’s more subdued 0.4% gain.
Bitcoin increased by almost 40% in January, marking an enormous year-to-date performance since 2013. Bitcoin watchers have been eagerly monitoring if the cryptocurrency’s price may surpass US$25,000 since the beginning of 2023.
