Bitcoin Forum

Hello :)

One day, a few years ago now, I had ~100 bitcoins on Old Usb Key.

I didn't remember having them, as I'd had them at the very beginning. This USB key was lying around in a drawer, as I imagine a lot of people have :)

I remembered that I had a Bitcoin wallet not long ago and I tried to find my USB key, without success.

This story makes me sad, because if I'd known, I'd have been more careful!

Moral: be careful with your stuff, even if it's old :p

If you never had a backup to the recovery keys to your wallet bitcoin, you may lose them completely, if you're using a hardware wallet and lost the device or it got damage, that also is another risk, i wont blame some of the early investors like you since then, because no one ever expect bitcoin to have achieved this far, still yet, some people are very good at keeping things, even if they never realized the value, they are just good at making archive, as them about something of 20+ years and they will bring it out for you, we should also take good care of our private keys, they are the access to the financial asset we possess, remember not your keys, not your coins.

Where have you been living all this while that you just remembered you've 100 Bitcoin... In a cave?

This is really tragic, it's a lot of money. Such an amount means that the owner of these coins will never have to work again.

A lot of attention and care are always necessary when a person decides to do self-custody, have backups of passwords and seeds in different hidden locations, preferably also informing trusted loved ones about this.

I think it's impossible to tell you to not feel bad about it, because we are talking about 7,000,000$ dollars. Anyway, you aren't the only one to face this harsh situation. There are some stories on the internet of another early investors who have also lost access to their wallets which were replenished of Bitcoins.

My doubt is, why some early investors were so careless over their coins back then? Didn't they believe Bitcoin have potential to become valuable like we see nowadays? Weren't they faithful adopters who were holding thinking on long term gains? What was their purpose by accumulating Bitcoin if it wasn't to store and keep it safely, then?

A good question to ask here. I wonder where he has been and just remembered that he had 100 BTC is a USB. But his profile said a BTC trader since 2010. So, this means he must have had an idea how to save his bitcoin since 2010, so what really happened and why remembering it recently. Maybe because the bitcoin price surged?

One of the many bad stories about lost Bitcoins. There was once a thread here where exactly such stories were collected and an attempt was made to crystallize how many Bitcoins were "lost" as a result. Nevertheless, I hope that your long history in the crypto scene has allowed you to benefit from the constant bull run anyway and that the 100 Bitcoins were not your only ones.

This story is common where holders or bitcoin owners lose their bitcoin just because they lose access to it or they forget about it. It's a common story, and many stories like that exist. It's because when bitcoin has only a low value, it is being ignored by anyone, and yeah, they have bitcoins a lot but eventually forget about them, and suddenly, when the bitcoin price has a high value, they will suddenly remember that they have holdings or they own bitcoin, but mostly too late as they may forget their keys or throw the harddrive or USB that contains their wallet with their bitcoin in it. Thats what you called, regret will always be in the end. If at  first you gave meaning and care to your assets, then maybe now you are a millionaire, but yeah, all things happen for a reason. Maybe millions are not meant for you, or you just get unlucky.

You are a bitcoin trader since 2010 as per your personal text - but ignoring the rapidly increasing value of bitcoin over time, what kind of story is this? Really - I'm not sure what you're telling me, your bitcoins were worth 2 million dollars in December 2017 but you put them in a drawer with no wallet backup or any kind of extra security.

Of course - mistakes like this can happen, but probably won't happen once bitcoin has a value of more than $100 every coin. Everyone realizes the value of their stored bitcoin after that - unless your 100 bitcoin are only worth $1.

There is one thing people keeps saying about there keys or about the amount they had hold before whatever thing that happened, do you think if you were with your key till date would you still hold or could have sold by now?
Definitely there wouldn't be any bitcoin around you because since bitcoin always attracts new ATH you could have been tempted to sell making you to lose your bitcoin since the origin till date and even as that there were people who invested when bitcoin was nothing and immediately they made 5x they sold still this same people come here to cry about their impatient to hold bitcoin till date without knowing they can't hold.

It's so unreal to actually forget having 100 bitcoins, I bet anyone that bought so early should have sold off more than 3 years ago, there are actually very few persons still holding bitcoin that I vest at the very beginning or earlier.

What about your recovery seed phase ? I bet you must have been careless about it or didn't ever take bitcoin serious and now you are surely in regrets that is if your story is true.

I have also thought of this as well making me to feel like it's a superstitious story or do we say that at such time he hasn't known anything about wallet security or what?
What happened is that at the earlier stage people sees bitcoin as nothing and immediately bitcoin began to gain attention everyone bounces back to search their wallet to know where they kept their bitcoin and some of them misplaced them those who managed to have back their bitcoin sold immediately bitcoin crosses the price of $1,000 at then they were thinking they could be the higher bitcoin will go without knowing that price will change in future.

In 2009, when bitcoin was launched, I created an account on the website. With the new account I received 5 bitcoins for free and I received a security key ... after so many years and the replacement of several PCs, at that time the storage was done on diskettes, of course I lost everything, I no longer have any information about . ..
Can anything be done for their recovery?

Moral: OP now stores absolutely everything and doesn’t throw trash out of the house. Just in case. ;D ;D
OP, you were asked a good question: if you are a trader, did you know about the price of Bitcoin all this time? The amount of 100 bitcoins is worth remembering, isn’t it?
History is a fiction that each of us can create as a lament for missed opportunities.
But there is a difference: someone cries, and someone acts.

Sad to hear this OP but no one knows that btc will gives such profit and will surges above 70k. As far I remember,I have also worked on free faucet in 2013-2014 but I haven't saved phrase or password. I totally forgot that how much Satoshis I made that time as I was totally new to internet ans even didn't know about Gmail. Im short I lost btc also there but the reason is only one that I was not aware of btc value.

Now I have written all my phrases in the hardcopy and I am thinking to make copy of it so im case of losing one I have one. I don't want to store in Google drive or any cloud storage as I have lost once almost 1k$ there and hacker have now access to all my old wallet.

OP, I don't understand the point of your forum thread. Do you want to just complain? It's all gone. What's the point of complaining? We've heard many horror stories about BTC being lost forever or stolen. Your story doesn't add anything new. I'm sorry for your loss, but we can't do anything to bring back those 100 BTC. You didn't mention when did you lose the USB key. I thought that you've lost 100 BTC today, based on your thread title.
Can you provide any valid evidence that you really had a USB with 100 Bitcoins? Any noob can make a forum post about having lost 100 or 1000 BTC years ago. Some noobs even make such posts to get merit, which is kinda pathetic.

This a very sad story to remember. It is more painful when you recall that it was all your fault that you lost the coins. But from your post, it seems you have overcome the loss and moved on. May early Bitcoiners also suffered the same fate because of carelessness or lack of faith in Bitcoin. Many of them never thought that the price of Bitcoin would increase to this extent. But I am surprised that you never remembered that you had such a treasure carelessly kept in a drawer. I don't care if the story is true or false I am just interested in learning from your mistake which is never to take anything for granted no matter how irrelevant it might look. Satoshi once said that lost Bitcoin is a donation to the Bitcoin community, therefore thanks for the kind gesture  :D.

It’s insane to think how many people have gone through the same as you. What really makes wonder is how could someone invest some money in to something and forget it? Is it really possible? How much was bitcoin when you first bought it? I would assume it’s still pretty cheap as you did not really had put so much thought and care into it.

It’s a shame and I would probably not be able to move on from this considering the rate of inflation in my country. Some sympathy for you, mate!

I hope that the experience you share can be a valuable lesson for anyone here who still doesn't understand the importance of looking after their bitcoin wallet. Or a crypto wallet. And yes, I'm sorry to hear stories like this, which I encountered quite a lot when I first started studying BTC. so I always keep my wallet mnemonic phrase in two different places. So that if I forget one then I still have the other one. I have both digital and physical copies to secure my crypto wallet.

And actually there are quite a lot of people who experience similar things about this if we collect them. Because no one would have guessed that bitcoin would become as valuable as it is now.

My question is... Don't you have an access to a device where you monitors this your Bitcoin assets because I believe the USB was a device only where you could store your document details such as your seed phrases and not a virtual device that displaces the views of your assets market.
Don't you have your seed phrases on a multiple storage either different online devices, sites or even on a hardware storage such a ls writing it down in some pieces of papers or a diary?
Oh my goodness. I do not know when you started accumulating these Bitcoins til you accumulated the sum of 100BTC but what I know is that interestingly, the value of Bitcoin at precious season or even to say just the past months can not be compared to the value of Bitcoin of today.
This really feels like being exploded. For goodness sake it is unbearable to see how high Bitcoin is going this time in the market price rate while considering the Possibilities to lost a whole 100BTC.
Sorry mate. We really and always have to be careful when handling valuables and not just Bitcoin because if you hand other necessary values in a careless manners it could become something usual that somedays, you could go careless with some valuables such as this mate who just lost the sum of 100BTC. Let's stay guided and careful.

It's unfortunate that some people only remember their holdings when the bitcoin price has skyrocketed, and by then, it's often too late. However, it's important to take responsibility for our assets and give them the care they deserve. While becoming a millionaire may not be meant for everyone, it's still essential to be mindful of our investments and take steps to protect them. In the end, we can only learn from our mistakes and move forward with a better understanding of the value of our assets. Kia Finance Login (https://www.kmfusa.org/)

No one expect that bitcoin will go far like this that's why there's a lot of people neglect to protect their asset before that's why some regret their decision to throw out their BTC and some regret because they didn't make sure that their old wallet is safe and they can grab it anytime they want hen they need it.

This is another story of lose bitcoin and a owner counting his possible profit if he can grab his old balance and sell it now.

Hope your story will serve a lesson for current Bitcoin holder that they make sure their wallet is safe and accessible at anytime if they are ready to use it. Hopefully we don't see any missing bitcoins in future and all people who start to hold their bitcoin now will earn a lot of money in future.

No offense, but why is it that every time bitcoin price increases or during bull season, stories of losing bitcoins or missing out on bitcoins increase day by day? This is really strange and even if it were true, would our whining and sadness bring them back to us? For me, the past is the past and let's focus on the present because we have no way to get back what we lost in the past.

Have you started your bitcoin accumulation journey now? Or are you still sitting there lamenting the bitcoins you lost in the past due to your mistakes? If you still don't take action, your future will never get better.

You're just one of the many that have forgotten their private keys and didn't care that much about the Bitcoin that they've held. Just like the guy that had his old harddrive wanting to be dug up on an old sanitary field but that's no luck at all because that has been dumped there for years. Also, another guy that had forgotten his password to his wallet that contains a lot of bitcoins too and IIRC, he's got 2 attempts left or else it will completely gone forever. I think that in the old days, everyone didn't expect that Bitcoin will grow this much so, they didn't protected themselves by having a backup.

If this true I remember the big bang theory show that has an episode related to Bitcoin. They mine Bitcoin many years ago and forgot about it. Their friend that they didn’t invite secretly stored their mine Bitcoin back then to the USB keychain of one his friends that mine it.

The Keychain USB with Bitcoin is always on his pocket until it was accidentally loss before they realized that they have Bitcoin. The hilarious part is the guy who find the USB reformat the USB with Bitcoin and sold it with 20 bucks.  :D

IMHO, it's not strange but the regret is there with these people that they want to share what their experiences are. If this story of OP is just made up, there are actual stories that are for real that have made those early miners or buyers of Bitcoin that held a lot of it lost it forever. But it's true that they can't do anything about it to restore what they've got before but I guess they just want to tell us the lesson that they've learned from these moments that they've got. I think those that have Bitcoin on the early days would have hard time in recovery and probably won't buy again, most of them.

I agree, nothing will happen if he didn't do action now. But it's just hard to move on with such event in your life that could have been life changing forever. More stories like this might come in the next few days when the earliest people that have trusted Bitcoin and purchased it have it before and then they can't do anything about it anymore as they're gone wholly. But, those that have continued despite of what happened to them and still accumulated and started a new journey are the ones that are brave.

Although the OP mentioned here that Bitcoin was in his wallet a long time ago. But he couldn't recover his bitcoins without care, which he laments today, which he regrets today. So when he put it in the bitcoin wallet maybe the value of bitcoins was very low, but today those bitcoins are worth a lot. So everything should be taken care of to keep yourself calm and have a happy future. Although small for the present but a mountain amount for the future as he lost bitcoins.

I somehow believe in your story as you have registered in this forum since 2013. Meaning, that you have known Bitcoin since then. Compared to other stories where I have doubts that they really do have their holdings, but they just recently have their account on this forum.

I feel sorry for what happened to you, I don't know what happened but maybe this made you hate yourself as 100 Bitcoins is so valuable up to this day. If the same thing happened to me, maybe it will leave a mark, and will regret this for the rest of my life.

It's a really bad experience 100 bitcoins means $7.15M at current prices. Which is no small and normal amount. If you don't keep a backup of these wallets, you will never get them back.  And if no one else can use them, they will be completely lost. Bitcoin is fully decentralized and here the wallet key is the key to everything. If someone loses this key, he will lose his bitcoins for life. There is no other way to get them back other than the key

This person created their account on 2013, if they bought bitcoin before that or got it through other means then it is entirely possible they may have forgotten they got that bitcoin long ago.

However it seems they stored their coins in an USB, which is a bad idea as those devices are known to go bad for no reason, making the recovery of those coins difficult if not impossible, so let this be just another reminder to keep our coins secure and keep several backups as well.

of course it's possible, when bitcoin appeared, it wasn't worth anything and so I disregarded it, I remembered it not so long ago when I moved and found some old stuff. sad reality.

I wish I hadn't remembered, today it haunts me.

Richards reward was to be happy for what he got. I don't bother to read to the end.

What you can't eat a teddy Gucci bear. I go to the shop.

At first I was quite skeptical about OP's story and these stories are nothing new as we have heard hundreds of similar stories. But as some have pointed out, his account was created in 2013 so it can be believed that what he said is true. But I agree with you, what is the purpose of this topic because other than him complaining about losing 100BTC, I don't see anything to discuss.
And if he wants to remind people then I think it's unnecessary because the value of bitcoin is very high these days and people won't be stupid to lose it like early investors like OP. Today's investors check bitcoin prices hourly and check their wallets daily, so losing bitcoin seems impossible. Things have changed a lot since bitcoin became as valuable as it is today.

If this story is real, then you can always look for the opportunity to find back your USB I'm sure there are still ways to find it because you won't lose anything if you still try until now. who knows it could be just in another drawer or in some other container that you forgot to keep there and you still have it but you cannot remember where you put it but it's still in your house. If it's me, I will exert all effort to look for it because it won't be that hard to find it back again rather than complaining and surrendering while I still have the chance to look for it right now.

Even though it happened a few years ago, losing 100 bitcoins is a very big loss.
If you have 100 bitcoins up to now of course you will have a lot of assets and can make you rich. Hopefully you'll find it someday.

When I read your story, at first I doubted what you were saying, but when I looked at your profile, it seems that you are telling the truth, so I'm sorry if I doubted you. If it was hidden in your USB, that means it can still be fixed until now, or it cannot be.

Where do you remember it being placed? at your house? at the office? because if you just misplaced your USB in the two that I mentioned, it's possible that you might still see it. That's why the chances are low because it's been 11 years. But that's a shame. 100 bitcoins—how much is that now? It's around 7.1 million dollars.

I understand that feeling of vulnerability, when you remember what you should have had and you know that you can't have it, it's something to spoil your day when you remember it. I've had a similar experience of losing my Bitcoin too, mine was that I probably didn't arrange my seed phrase in the right order and the imported wallet keeps telling me I've misspelled a word, i tried different combinations of similar words and it wouldn't open, although the Bitcoin inside can never be compered to what the OP lost. I guess that most new investors that didn't have guidance while creating a wallet will have a sad story to tell, because they wouldn't know the importance of securing they seed phrase.

Correct. Of the many people I have seen losing bitcoin because they forgot their private key both on this forum and on YouTube and other media, they were those who got to know bitcoin when it was still cheap and getting it was also a little easier, starting from faucets, mining, etc. So they didn't think that Bitcoin would be as expensive as it is now, so at that time many of them didn't think that private key security was very important. I would probably be like them if I were in their position, so it's not surprising that if Bitcoin experiences an increase or reaches a new ATH then stories like this will always reappear, maybe because they want to remember their regrets and also make us realize how important it is to protect private keys with safe.

All these stories are lessons for everyone, both true and fictional stories. But the point remains one, protect your private keys like you protect your life.

It seems very disappointing it seems very unusual to make such a mistake for bitcoin investment. You had to be very careful to keep them. I think you can find the USB key better. As the value of bitcoin is increasing, you will be much better off finding the USB key. Valuable things at work should be kept carefully so that if needed later there is no regret. If you have it at home you can find it.

I remember the episode in Big Bang Theory in netflix about Leonard,Raj and howard found out that they have bitcoin and looking for their USB with Bitcoin but stuart found it and deleted all the files and sold for some  bucks .

Lesson learn that we must trust and keep safe our precious Bitcoin or else we will regret this forever .

Sorry for your loss mate and hope you have invested more now .

Don't neglect anything, a little valuable asset in the present can be a mountain in the future. For example, the biggest loss you have faced at present is due to careless keeping of Bitcoin wallet keys. However, especially if you had written the keys down in a paper or diary and kept them in a safe place, you could have recovered this precious resource at this time. Since you destroyed it, it can never be recovered.

The past is the past but some past hurts more than ever, they will always be a part of you, I don't want to know how strong you are, just pray that something very bad doesn't happen to you, I know this is investment field but past isn't just past.

Past are different types, some are magnets, they stay in us like they are part of the bone in the body, and the past is part of the reasons that will reshape the future, what do you think will happen to those who will survive the Ukraine and Russia war? You think they can move on losing all their families?

This is a part to my point that not all past are just mere past, some will become a glue like and the future decisions will be impacted by those past, mistakes are mistakes, we move on, but they could happen again if we don't learn from it.

It's also the same with forgiving, if you forgive and move on, you will find yourself in the same similar mess again, but if you forgive and never forget, you will keep evading any similar incident that's gearing up to happen again.

This is a real tragedy. According to some sudies and stimes, about 20% of BTC are lost forever due to forgotten wallets, forgotten passwords, lose access to hardware wallets or paper wallets containing their Bitcoin private keys, failures of hardware devices or storage media containing Bitcoin private keys, Bitcoin sent to addresses with no known private keys or to non-standard addresses. So, there are many ways to lose BTC. One should always take all possible measures to prevent these issues. However, if you handle a lot of money, the fear of losing it is always there, I think.

It is better to be cautious in any activity in life. You may not have been so careful at the time when the price of Bitcoin was so low that you were not so careful and carelessly put the seed phrase in your wallet. If you had kept your wallet seed phrase carefully, you would not have lost your bitcoins. Now at this price your 100 bitcoins = $7288100 which is unimaginable to people like us. But as the price of Bitcoin rises, so will your misery. From here every human being should be careful that before doing anything we should be careful if we can act carefully then later such mistakes may not happen. If you had not lost this amount of bitcoins, you would have lived happily ever after.

Did you, OP, tell anyone before your USB disappeared that you had 100 bitcoins? Perhaps someone managed to steal it after obtaining this information from you, and regardless of what happened to the old USB, losing it is a big lesson for you. Still, it does not make you sad; rather, it makes you cautious about protecting your seedphrases and not storing them on a USB alone if the USB malfunctions or is stolen...Etc. You will lose access to your assets forever.

This lesson also teaches you that wealth is created through Bitcoin. If you were not lucky the last time you lost your USB, you will be lucky in the coming times and opportunities. If you are not able to accumulate 100 BTC now due to the high price of Bitcoin, then even the amount that you do not feel its value now will have huge value in the future. Never lose hope and only take away positive lessons from these stories.

OP you are Bitcoin Trader Since 2010, right? Which in my point of view you should have a good knowledge about the crypto space. Your one wrong step can clean wash out your whole wallet well in your case you have stored 100 Bitcoin in the Old USB that may compromised somehow by hackers or by someone. In the space of Crypto dear privacy and security are the first priorities if you neglect them you may have to face the bad troubles just you are facing after losing a fair amount of Bitcoin.

Other Than that once you have lost something in the crypto world means you have done with it but you have really lost a big amount which is seriously a bad thing dear keep in mind from the next time that you have to keep secure your assets in crypto world just you have to stay up to date from the updated techniques hackers use to scam the holding funds.

This is the double-edged sword of self-custody. The freedom to be your own bank comes with the immense responsibility of safeguarding your financial lifeline. It's a constant dance between accessibility and security. A hardware wallet tucked away too securely becomes a forgotten fortune. A digital copy stored on a single device becomes a target for hackers.

The key, as always, lies in balance. Multiple backups, a combination of digital and physical, spread across secure locations become your failsafe. Treat your recovery keys with the reverence they deserve, for they are the gateway to your digital wealth. Remember, in the world of Bitcoin, losing your keys is akin to losing your gold – a permanent farewell to your precious assets.

The way you say "a few years ago" it sounds like it wasn't a decade ago and if that is the case, your Bitcoin must had some value even then if, as you said, you have 100 Bitcoins, so even if one Bitcoin was worth $1k, you had $100k lying around and you just kept it in a drawer instead of trying to sell them or transfer them to an exchange platform so that you can sell them later on. That sounds very careless and one shouldn't be like that with their financial holdings.

This is the reason why people without much knowledge and awareness about such things shouldn't get involved if they are investing money what's the point if you can't manage your wallet or keep your assets safe? They will either be lost or stolen in no time if you don't know how to keep them secure.

If this story is true, then this is truly a terrible thing that he has had to endure for so many years. How can you say he won't be sad? We're not in OP's situation so we can't know, it is such a huge loss that no words can describe it. At current prices, that 100BTC is worth 7 million USD, who among us can earn that amount? A lesson so valuable that we will never be able to earn that money back in our lives. I see this as more of a warning than a lesson for all bitcoin investors to be extremely careful in storing their bitcoins.

That's a lot of money that you lost. Having that be put in a USB and lost it just makes it even worse. You shouldn't be forgetting how you created your wallet because it's going to be your savior. Maybe you have written it or something.

I remember the story about the dude trying to find his old hard drive in a garbage dump or something.

Bitcoin wallet keys should be kept very carefully by you. The things you neglect are the ones you need more. You may not be able to recover it. After that private keys are used to gain access to bitcoin addresses and sign transactions, which must be kept secure. Using services like bitcoin paper wallet can create a paper wallet with less risk of loss if written in the diary.

If thats true you must be a trilonare right now. I also have same experience woth you. I store million of IOTA coin in laptop and sometime become a node. Also I have some POS Maternode coin in my laptop. Someday my laptop got heat and some part need to replace, but after replaced i got blue screen.

In that timeline MIOTA and my other coin still have low value, and the most problem is coin development seems struggle, and no progress. so I install my laptop to new system without backup it, because i dont think coins will grow in the future.

100 Bitcoins stored on an old USB means you bought around 2013, right? :o

Don't know if this story is made up or valid if this is the case then sadly, if only that old USB had met you a millionaire friend now.
Still what is lost will not be easy to find again until whenever because you have ignored security first, maybe bitcoin was worthless but now it is an important asset in your life.

I keep the item safe, because I know there are assets there and no one knows to keep it.
I am quite careful with items that have bitcoin, will remain guarded and paid attention to.

Op If you don't have a backup of your recovery key or lost your wallet USB it's an unbelievable loss. if someone is using a hardware wallet and loses the device which stores the hardware wallet then it's also dangerous. The value of 100btc is very loud and you didn't have now collect 100btc because the price of btc is approx 70k$ plus. I don't blame you for losing your money becaassoas on as nobody believes Bitcoin would go to 73k$ bume people care about your key and wallet. We should take care of private keys because not your key, not your wallet you only reach the asset when you have backup keys. We should learn lession from the past mistakes and avoid in future take care of private keys and wallets.

100 Bitcoin, that's $6.8M Bitcoin we are talking about here. If I'm in your shoe and Bitcoin experience a bull run, I wouldn't be able to eat because that's a life changing money right there. However, looking at how Bitcoin has had its up and down, don't you think you might sell some or sold during the last bullrun, just saying.

I think situation made you not take the USB so serious, if it was a hardware wallet you bought for like $50 in 2010, you would have handle it with proper care and not put it anywhere but a USB key should be less than a dollar in 2010. More lesson for people who are just coming to buy Bitcoin now at this price, in 14 years from now, these post will be use as reference how people some people has loss access to their Bitcoin.

I also think that if you have use Bitcoin core with some private keys back then and properly backup, it might have save you when you loss the USB key but I still don't blame you because this was when Bitcoin hasn't get much attention.

Wuen things don't have a worth we don't seem to give much meticulous care about them simply because their value isn't at the time worth the care it need given, and this was the case with bitcoin many years ago that a lot of people had to lose their funds invested in bitcoin because they can't recall when or where they last saw or kept their hard wallet or stored their wallet seed phrase. I think the moral lesson here should be, "when  something is said to be a promising asset in the future put in effort to safe keep it as you don't know what the future value of such asset can be". Look at all those that had their wallet's intact till today, they are now the whales we are referring too on each bitcoin market discussion.

It's possible that my friend because he was early acquainted with bitcoin so he had a lot at that time the price of bitcoin was still cheap and worthless, 3 years ago maybe he remembers it's just not found until now the USB or he just expressed now on the forum about losing 100 bitcoin.

If OP saved bitcoins from 2010 isn't the first wallet bitcoin core which has no seed phrase and only .dat file and password needed?

He probably thought bitcoin would not go up like it is now so he was careless to keep the USB anywhere in a random place, people like him are always there because of the negligence of worthless items in the past.

What type of investor will buy a whole 100 bitcoin and forget about it just like that, I don't think this is a rela story, because even though you bought the bitcoin when the price was a few cent, I still will be important for you since at that point what attract most investment is the beauty of the technology.

And in few months to year from the early days, bitcoin began to gain some massive traction which caught the attention of many that should be forgotten just like that, between you have t9 remember something if you really hard those bitcoin way back.

Everyone always learns a moral from their carelessness, greed, and other things that can cause them to regret their actions. Since you said that you don't remember having Bitcoin in that wallet, you would have at least kept the key to the USB safe, knowing fully well that it could be important one day. So many people have usually come up with this kind of story, like how they forgot they had Bitcoin on a centralized exchange for a long period of time or how they sold their 100th Bitcoin when the price was still very low. Some stories are not true, but even if they are fictional, some of us who are careless about our important properties should be careful to keep safe their documents and every bit of information they might find in useful the future. 

Buddy, it sounds so strange how can you ignore such a big amount for a very long time just like it is a piece of cake. I have checked the date of registration of your account and you have written text that "BTC TRADER SINCE 2010" which shows that you should have a good amount of knowledge about it. Now who knows where is your amount now maybe it is compromised due to old technology or some other reason. Your one mistake and you have done with your total amount.

Now there is no way you can access your amount back it is crypto space and in this world, we have to stay up to date about our holding assets. Technology has updated a lot which can provide a way good security to your holding assets but there is always a threat in the holder's mind that is their amount is safe or not because hackers are also updating their scamming techniques with the passage of time looking at the recent technology. But I feel bad about your loss. From the next time stay safe and up to date never consider your holding a piece of cake because your holdings are worth it for you. Thanks!

Hate to break it to you but that’s $7M you lost there. I can’t imagine how it feels for you living and knowing that you have $7M somewhere but you just can’t access it. Though I believe that you wouldn’t just hold it till now if you had access to it the whole time. You’d probably sell when you saw even 10,000% increase. Anyways, it’s sad but you have to start from scratch. DCA will help you over the years, and bitcoin will definitely be worth a lot more.

Similar to the mentioned incident, it is possible to see a good number of users losing access to their wallets, which have a good amount of bitcoin. People never thought of bitcoin reaching this high, and the same makes them go careless. When the price has reached its peak, people start looking for the wallet and try to remember the recovery phrase. Some people were lucky to recover the wallet with the backup, but the majority lost it. So, we need to be careful when handling anything, despite the value it holds.

The values of bitcoins then and now is different, it will really pain when targets are not triggered. We can easily spot out the gigantic price. The lucky stars shined upon few people and the successfully  withdraw points. 100 bitcoins, you're a multi-billionaire in dollars and this would just settled everything in life. The incident will be awful because that's huge loss in the market. Currently, there are measures to follow in the market. Those who were able to bagged bitcoin when they're cheap can be driving their dream car by now.

well, if you go back in time, before bitcoin had the high price it has today, not many people realized that bitcoin was a big thing. Many people are like you, have bitcoin, and forget about it. Most people in the past were just trying to have one.
However, I'm sorry about this. However, this is a very valuable lesson for us to always pay attention to what we have and take good care of it. Place management is also very necessary. So, I think being patient and continuing to move forward is the wise path to take

The problem is that at that time, bitcoin is just some hobby that you forgot about and I probably would've done the same thing as you with that flash drive, I mean if you don't got a utility at the moment for something, you'll almost always going to end up discarding them, that's how it goes with things like this so make sure that if you want to keep something, make sure that you're not keeping it just for the sake of keeping it, you need to have a purpose for keeping that in thing in your person, right now or in the present, if that doesn't satisfy those categories, discard it. There's also the possibility that you might not even be able to open it since it's abandoned and there's the possibility that it's probably obsolete and that it's damaged by the elements that you're probably going to see that it wouldn't be working anymore. Oh well, I guess another 100 bitcoin is gone and down into the abyss thus increasing the value of it even more, thank you for your involuntary sacrifice OP.

Alot of people have lost so many Bitcoin as a result of carelessness. just because they got it from the earliest time so it was so much of a value back then that is why it was lost in the first place. I cannot blame op or any other in this kind of situation because Bitcoin was a paradigm shift and from that perspective it be valued from the beginning because it a new invention, and perhaps for OP this drive have been in the house for a long time now but as soon as he needs it, he can't find it. I usually have this kind situation at home where I will keep something and when the importance comes it won't be seen any where. its just frustrating.

Once again Op sorry for such a be loss, I wouldn't imagine being in your situation.

I mean no one actually expected for Bitcoin to be so valuable when in was made in the past year, it was just some new technology that we see, Most of the people that bought that time for sure weren't really expecting that the market price of Bitcoin is going to exceed up to 70k$ I really doubt that they hold until now because they know and believed on it, I believed most of this people are just lucky enough somehow maybe they just forget about it and then probably see it again when the market started to increase its market price. Most of them for sure already sold a huge amount of their Bitcoin or worse sold it all already when the market increased probably when 20k$ I guess.

In the first place for sure, we should be mindful of all of our things, it was probably difficult to keep all of the stuff, I mean for years, personally the flash drive that I owned a long time ago I didn't really know where it is today, and I already lose it I think, probably because I just doesnt know its value right, we just tend to not give enough importance to it especially if it wasn't really that valuable to was. That time this flash drive was lost Bitcoin wasn't really a thing I guess so it's easy to overlook this thing, but I guess it would be a good thing if you are someone that is very meticulous to your things, my mom was likethat, his things that she own is still working until these days.

I completely agree with you, if we had the opportunity to own 100BTC like OP at that time, I also believe that not too many people would be able to hold it today. Because the future is unpredictable.

We're not in that situation so we can't blame the OP for being careless or stupid. OP is not the first person to lose bitcoins or there are many people who sold their bitcoins for very cheap prices. But many investors who have just joined bitcoin in the past few years think they are smart and criticize these people mercilessly. They claim that, if they knew bitcoin at the time, they would have held and not sold any bitcoin, LOL.

Oh my God!! 🥺 this breaks my heart... If it was me.. I would never have peace of mind 😢

Just 2 points I noticed:

1) The OP says he is a Bitcoin trader, so maybe he still made a lot of money with Bitcoin, and just made a specific mistake regarding this USB stick with 100 Bitcoin....

2) In case he is suffering about the lost Bitcoins, I would suggest to buy a lottery ticket every week with a top price of the current 100 Bitcoin value, maybe he is lucky again to make a good decision ..

:)

I don't know if your story is true and if you lost coins for real, but many bitcoiners from the early days lost the keys to their coins because BTC was not worth anything in the early days and they did not bother about securing their coins or taking security seriously. These days people are more careful with how they handle their coins and security is now the first thing most bitcoiners aim to achieve once they buy BTC. There is even a similar story of a man who threw away his hard drive containing 7,500 BTC's in 2013, his name is James Howells, he has been going 'crazy' in recent years on how to recover it because BTC is now so valuable, but back in 2013 it wasn't and so he carelessly lost it.

Am sure one day if any of us gets to loose any other coin besides BTC and it becomes a valued coin, stories or post like this would be written to remember it.
I have lost some BTC also at the first onset of joining a campaign when I knew not how to withdraw or transfer to and from a wallet. In shut, I had so little knowledge that when I decided to use a trust wallet, I lost the key phrases and didn't know it was necessary to recover the coins.
Certainly not your keys, not your coins for that day.

Am sure I wouldn't make such an error today because the knowledge I have gathered has helped sharpen my cryptocurrencies IQ to the point that believe in the continued rising value of BTC as an asset and as a good future investment to sponsor a dream or get an achievement.

It was difficult for people back then to think that bitcoin will become so valuable and that it will do it in such a short amount of time, and sometimes I even find it hard to believe even when I am watching the charts, so it is understandable that people were not as interested on securing their coins properly as they never imagined this could happen.

So unless a miracle happens, those coins are lost and there is no way to get them back, and in order to make sure this does not happen to us, we need to prepare properly and protect our coins, otherwise in a decade or two we could be the ones lamenting the loss of our bitcoin.

Those who have collected a lot of Bitcoin at the beginning certainly would never have thought that the price of Bitcoin could reach the price it is today so they think Bitcoin is not an asset that they have to look after and at that time they could get it at a low price but for some people who still keep the key their wallets have certainly enjoyed the profits they have earned, yes, it is indeed important for us to keep the keys to the wallets where we store Bitcoin so that we don't make mistakes like those who think Bitcoin is just useless for them so they regret it when don't have access.

You are right that we should take good care of the things we own despite their current value because we never know what value they might have in the future. So as it is always said a person shouldn't just learn from their own mistakes but they should also learn from the mistakes of others, so such stories teach us the lesson that we shouldn't be careless with our assets even if they aren't worth a lot for now.

100 Bitcoins right now is a life-changing amount, and I'm pretty sure anyone that have lost that much money will feel extremely bad, so I feel sorry for OP, however, I believe it's his own mistake because he had the Bitcoins in a USB stick and still couldn't keep it somewhere safe.

your idea  is good, but if you invest in cryptocurrency, or stocks, or lotteries, all of them involve risk.  I would say that if you are going to trade then you should also know about the small fundamental news that will keep you updated with the market and reduce your risk and profit. This very good strategy I am also use this strategy in trading and other investment.

However, let's assume his story is true, when Bitcoin was very cheap, no one ever thought that Bitcoin would be trading at the price it is today, I have a close friend who had 1BTC in a wallet he forgot the keys to, Whe saw that Bitcoin had exploded in 2021,we did everything to recover that Bitcoin but no result, So, Somehow I don't blame the early investors of Bitcoin, using myself as an example, there was this coin I bought, today it happened that the coin has exploded in price, but the problem here is that I have forgotten where I stored the keys to the wallet because I didn't value it at the initial time to even think it will skyrocket in price, so I kind of think this is the situation here with those early investors if at all this story is true.

I can't help but wonder, why would someone buy a hardware wallet and store their Bitcoin in it if they don't find its value intriguing enough for them to take good care of it. As far as I know, people store their Bitcoin in a hardware wallet only if they either want to hold it for the long term or to keep it safe from exploits and stuff and when someone does that, they should also make sure where their hardware wallets are kept to make sure it's safe and sound.

It is understandable if a person says that they had their wallet in an old computer and lost access to it, but when someone says that they had a bunch of Bitcoins in a hardware wallet lying around, I feel like they are either making up a story or they are extremely careless with their stuff.

Don't worry mate because your story inspires many of us how we only have to
trust bitcoin and keep safe even the last drop of satoshi we have in our wallets because
some day this will have huge value like what you said now that back in those days bitcoin
isn't worth anything.
and also lucky that you remembered this today and not when Bitcoin is already
worth millions of dollars each because that will surely Haunt you more than how you feels now.

You consider your real life experience as a story, this is why I won't believe your story, but I would like to make some contribution still.

So you can't find the UBS anymore? When was this? Because it makes no sense to have 100 Bitcoin and not aware that Bitcoin hit 69k in 2021, why are you just looking for a way to get your USB now?

Are you really sure that you ever had one? Because it doesn't look like it, your Bitcoin wallet do have a private key or recovery seed, do you not write that down and keep separately? Or you kept this in the same USB drive?

Even as a hardware wallet owner, I still keep my recovery seed far away from my hardware wallet, the keys are more important than the hardware because through the keys is the only way to get access into assets again.

If you have ever literally lost a hundred bitcoins, you are the unluckiest person ever to come to this point. But you mentioned that you got free bitcoins but as far as I know no free bitcoins were given in any event maybe you were given some other coin instead of bitcoins which has no value in the market. But if you're sure it wasn't a coin other than Bitcoin, you'll have to believe it. But a few years ago when the price of Bitcoin was good enough if you receive 100 Bitcoins in your wallet why you are not aware of your wallet. Even at that time, since the value of Bitcoin was very high, if you were aware at that time, you might have kept your Bitcoin safe.

Heh for hoarders, this is good news. I grew up not being able to let go of things
no matter how old it was because “it might be useful in the future.”
And it never is but I never know it might actually be a hard wallet containing
bitcoins and it can totally change my whole life for the better.

We believe in Bitcoin and its long-term investment will yield huge profits. And decentralized Bitcoin wallets rely on a private key that can never be memorized. So it should be stored in a safe place. op lost his bitcoins because he didn't care about his wallet.  Now that Bitcoin is so valuable, even if he remembers his previous holdings, he can no longer access them. It is a nail-biting experience for him.

I was thinking likewise. To me this story looks more like a fictional story, but nevertheless if the hardware is lost actual the bitcoin on it is trapped except you find it , there is no other way , it has lost forever and can not be find.  I still wounder how you couldn't think of this number of bitcoin for this long uptil now.

Having $1,00 worth of Bitcoin in the past years and you never cared keeping it on track or having the though of having it at all? And just of recent it got to your attentions that you once had bitcoin with the keys stored somewhere you can't find it anymore? Oh damnit. How careless are you Op? I guess it should be the cause of the excited pumpkin the market that called on your attention towards it otherwise I don't think you'd still care about it.
You don't really have to be sad about it because it's assumed you've more than the lost because you only disregard what's not valuable to you so , it's a thing that the lost assets wasn't valuable to you otherwise you'd had been extremely careful about you. This is an assets in discuss about here and not just of $.

It's good to know that you've realized yourself and so doing insighting to be careful next time.
Let the experienced of those who had shared their ugly situations in the pasts serve as lessions to us all.
Don't feel depressed Op, you can always make it again at when you're determined to make a difference.

I've always ignored this thread from the very day it was opened but thought I should just drop my view about this today. Lol...Sorry for your loss, but I must say that this story did not touch me in any way, and that's if it's ever true. By the way, how much is the total cost of what you lost altogether not regarding the current state of Bitcoin?

I mean the price you purchased the Bitcoin then and the value of the USB you stored it in. I asked the question to add credence to the discussion because even if I buy a thing with a total package of $20, I wouldn't handle it as if it was nothing, not to mention of what holds an asset in it that was being saved for future purposes. I've read many similar stories like this but I always denote the insincerity in them because it can't be taken as carelessly as that even if Bitcoin was bought at the value of just $10. In your case, it's 100 x $10 ($1,000), which is still a fortune, to say the least.

Is getting bitcoin through a faucet years ago considered free? And when it first launched, bitcoin had no value at all and as I heard, every time bitcoin was distributed, some people even received 5BTC each time. Furthermore, in 2009 and 2010, bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency in the world, so I don't think the OP couldn't distinguish whether it was bitcoin or altcoin.

OP is not the only person who lost bitcoins, and that 100 bitcoins is not the largest number ever lost. It seems like you're doubting the story but if you check his account he's been here since 2013 so it could be a true story.

I am not sorry for your loss. If you are careless with 100 bitcoins which is worth millions at current prices, you deserved to be parted with the money sooner or later. Hope you learn from this in future.

OMG,, :o
You are an old member and if you had saved your bitcoin wallet key you would not have lost BTC100 bitcoins. Maybe you have tried a lot to recover your key by looking at current bitcoin location and bitcoin price changes but without success. Maybe you have a lot of money in the device that you lost but you are unable to recover it in any way, it seems very painful and difficult for you. If you had been careful back then you could have become a big man today just by selling bitcoins. If you had carefully kept your keys in a safe place then, you might have recovered your money today. However, what you lost will never be found, since you don't have the key to the wallet, so there is no way to revive the wallet. But you must be more careful in the present so that you don't lose the key later if you invest Bitcoin now and keep your money and care.

No not really. Everyone that owns bitcoin loves to see these type of things happen since it makes their bitcoin worth more. less liquidity.  :o no one that owns bitcoin wants someone tanking the price of bitcoin by dumping a large number of them on an exchange. i wouldn't think

and think about it. if we really cared or thought it was a "real tragedy" then we could change how bitcoin works but good luck with that.

also did the OP mention how much he paid for those 100 bitcoin? even if he paid $100 each, that's $10,000. pretty wreckless to not take care of that type of an investment so i'm assuming he must have not paid that much for them.

 you are one of the richest people in the world, have assets of 100 bitcoins, do you keep very valuable things in a drawer, it is very strange in what year you started discovering bitcoin, so only now do you realize that your keys have been lost, are you kidding or is it just your hallucination?

If you read you would have figured out what you are asking:


When he left those Bitcoin in the drawer they were probably worth pennies. Let's say they were worth $0.15. 100 Bitcoins at that time equaled $15. Not bad for a beer but definitely something valuable as today they are worth $6.14M.

You lost 100 Bitcoin, could imagine if it were in your saved care it you will be worthy of millions ,but you shouldn't have given up you should have recovered your key backup Bitcoin is already worth millions of dollars I'm sorry for your lost mate you should please be extra careful with the way you keep your things.

In 2009 and 2010 the first bitcoins hit the market and maybe the OP is not talking about 2009 or 2010 he is talking about a few years back when he got 100 bitcoins for free and he lost those bitcoins. If the OP was talking about four or five years from now, I'd still say that the value and popularity of Bitcoin at that time was substantial, and that the chances of getting Bitcoin for free at that time were very low. But if the OP claims that he got 100 free bitcoins around 2009 or 2010 then we must believe it because that happened at that time and a lot of btc was given to accounts on certain sites. But maybe there is no point in regretting what he lost because if he regrets he might not get back his lost 100 btc he should have been careful and taken the matter seriously.

10-12 years ago bitcoin had little or no value at all. That's why we've also heard so many stories about people throwing away their bitcoin, and having no way of getting it back as they know its value at this point. I bet if you owned that bitcoin 12 years ago you would have thrown it away or not cared about it the way the OP did. Because it doesn't have great value, and the future is unpredictable.

Even if you know about the value and potential of bitcoin now, I bet you won't be able to hold on to your bitcoin in the next 10 years. Don't be so quick to criticize those who lost bitcoin years ago when the value of bitcoin was nothing.

If I remember correctly, in 2013 bitcoin was worth hundreds of dollars so it was a myth that someone would get 100BTC for free. I think he's talking about 2009, 2010.

And I completely agree with you that many people spend too much time thinking about the past and feeling regretful about things that they will never have the chance to fix. Reminiscing and regretting only waste time and kill our will. Instead, see it as a lesson and find a way to fix it so we don't have to regret it later. Accumulating bitcoin from now on is the only way to correct all the past mistakes we have made.

Security is protection is very crucial things for your success and just holding cannot give you profit if you hold longer but you forget all the keys through which you can get access to your holdings. If you failed to find that USB then you will not be able to get your bitcoin.

I think if you invest in something then you should learn well about the privacy and security as well as about the steps which are important for your success. You should keep your USB at a secure place because before investment it is important to learn that how expensive bitcoin is and how important is the keys so if you was familiar with bitcoin value and its importance then you would never leave USB like this no matter its old or new.

So sad, it is so painful to lose this amount of money because it is huge indeed. It is so easy for one to lose bitcoin when one is not handling it very careful. Everything that us concerned with bitcoin needs to be taking very serious because if any mistake should happen it can lead to lose of bitcoin. Some people if they no longer use a wallet they abandon it, after sometime when they have something to do with wallet they won't be able to get access to it because they thought it wasn't important and they thought they would never need it again.  Carefulness is very important in bitcoin because sometimes information that can make us to gain access to bitcoin can't be retrieved, when it is lose, it is lose forever which means money will be lose .

It's better not to immediately think of it as a joke or hallucination, because it could be true so he tries to reveal it here to tell many people even though it is a very large number and some people may have never even had it. If he kept valuables in his drawers and the drawers were in a really safe place, I don't think any problems would arise. But things like this of course have to go back to the memory of the person who keeps them because it will be difficult for everyone to provide a solution if they themselves don't remember how the incident happened.

It is very sad to read your story.  Also, your issue is so important now that not having wallet security or not caring about wallet security is something you will regret later.  Your 100 bitcoins are currently worth millions of dollars while the security of bitcoins on the crime USB drive is not working well, much to your regret.  So preserving the security system of the wallet is very important thing that everyone should take seriously.

We don't know whether we should believe your story or not, but the 100 bitcoins you hold will make you a billionaire now. It cannot be recovered if you do not have access to the USB so the bitcoins you have will be lost forever. My question is why did you just remember today that you have 100 bitcoins and whether it's a coincidence or not, I think you are quite a careless person. Even though people are desperately collecting bitcoins to save, you are wasting chance to become someone who has a lot of money now.

It is important to keep some private keys when people store bitcoins and your case is really surprising because 100 bitcoins is not cheap nowadays. It's quite a sad story because we have to lose a lot of bitcoin in conditions of quite significant increases even though we can make maximum profits at this time.

Yes, the current $6.5M for 100 Bitcoins is a huge amount.  This means that the op either didn't care much about his bitcoins or that the bitcoin value at the time he bought the bitcoins was so insignificant that he didn't think about its future. I believe op's story because op's account was registered on this forum in 2013. and until the end of 2017, the merit system was in the form of Airdrop, but at that time he was so lazy that he did not post that he used his account, so he is still in Member rank. so it is possible for him to lose the private key. It is a very sad incident

Well I wonder what you thought bitcoin was that you could easily forget it for so many years and only remembering it now. Fact is that either your very rich, irresponsible stupid or just lieing, cause I believe that anyone would hardly leave his bitcoin for so many years with all the news and FOMO from bull to bull and different cash range and your mind never flashed back, well it would have been eevn better you never remembered.

very sad 100 btc just disappeared, aware of ownership but think btc has no value at all,
At least have a seed reserve other than BTC, such as an active wallet that can be used on a cellphone or PC to store the BTC

Checking how old the Op account is, he might be saying the truth that he lost access to the wallet which he holds that large amount, because there are a lot of early holders who lost access to their wallet as a result of them not believing in it, and as such, they did not take full responsibility for the wallet. Some only started paying attention to the wallet after they discovered how valuable bitcoin has become and how much they will get if they recover the wallet.

It is very rare for someone to accumulate that much bitcoin and then lose access to the assets they owned. My assumption is, if the story is true, maybe he bought bitcoin at a fairly low price, so he doesn't really care about the assets he owns. Even though he has been on this forum for a long time, it doesn't mean he has the opportunity to collect that much bitcoin. I've also been on this forum for a long time but I don't have as many assets as OP has.

Let's just say the story is true and I think the OP is quite a careless person because if he hadn't lost access to these assets, he would now be one of the new billionaires on the forum and in the real world. That is why it is important to keep a confidential key to the assets we own and this must be a consideration for anyone who must maintain the confidentiality of private keys.

op is very unlucky. even though he has 100 bitcoins, he cannot access his bitcoins. There is no greater regret than this. Yes given the age of the op's account his story seems true so I feel very sorry for him. My dream was and still is to own a whole 1 bitcoin but lost them even after owning 100 bitcoins. In case of Bitcoin if someone loses his wallet key he cannot access his wallet any other way.  So no doubt he lost all his bitcoins. so sad story

When a user has a large amount of money, he forgets about a small amount of money and loses his access. I think you may have invested this coin at a time when you may not have been careful enough to store your wallet keys in a safe place. Although you may have seen a hundred bitcoins in your wallet long ago, if you calculate its value today, your eyes will surely roll up your forehead. Because you have lost so much money you will definitely regret and if you get your keys back then maybe we can get your money back, but you didn't keep it in a safe place because of which it is very difficult to get your keys back. So I think that the mistake you made will be a history of your life so you should always be careful so that you don't make such a mistake any time in the future, rather you should keep your wallet keys carefully.