Lost bitcoins

[Mia Chloe]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

[Wapinter]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Actually price depends on many things and not on just supply in circulation.

Only if all those lost bitcoins are made available for sale on exchanges, then they can effect the price.

With growing demand of btc even if all 21m BTC are available for sell even then price can stay at current level or goes up.
That said, it is nearly impossible to recover those lost bitcoins . Imagine someone has lots of BTC in his wallet and he forgets is recovery Passphrass Or he lost his hardware wallet, then in this and many other such situations, coins are lost for good.

[OgNasty]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

The coins are considered lost for a reason. If they could be recovered then they would not be lost. However, answering your question would mean that the developers had done something to recirculate coins that haven’t been touched in some time, resulting in a loss of faith in Bitcoin itself and causing the price to crash to nearly worthless.

[Z-tight]

so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

I would not be happy that someone lost the private keys to their BTC.

There is no way to know the exact number of BTC's that are lost, some people don't move their BTC's for years and it does not mean that they are lost. And how many actually lost private keys are suddenly going to be found and liquidated for it to make the price of BTC drop, i don't know what your theory is, but this is a non-issue that does not deserve a topic of its own.

You have started many topics recently, slow down and read.

[The Cryptovator]

I hope that no one loses their Bitcoin, and I wouldn't be pleased either, even though it might benefit other Bitcoin holders. The loss of your Bitcoin wouldn't significantly impact the price, as it would be an insignificant amount in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, you shouldn't worry unless you manage to recover all the lost Bitcoin, which is unlikely. The price of Bitcoin is determined by its circulation and demand, not solely by its supply.

[boyptc]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

It goes like this.

Whether there will be lost bitcoins or not that will be up for sale and it's a huge volume. There will be for sure an effect to the price of Bitcoin. Not just that, there will be more force if the media is going to publish these sell offs as it's gonna put pressure to many retail holders.

And from there, the news that's disseminated will impact to everyone that's also gonna feel bad about it.

But let's take the reality of these lost bitcoins, they won't be called lost if they're not lost entirely. It's good that there's this take that these lost bitcoins are lost forever and instead of a drop that it will contribute, the value from each of those will be retained.

[BIT-BENDER]

Why should you rejoice over someone losing access to their Bitcoin, I think it's rather sad seeing that event happening and how can Bitcoin which can't be accessed be considered lost, I don't know so much about this logic on exchanges but if you have a private wallet and you can't get to it then I believe it's lost for good.

There are people who hasn't had access to their Bitcoin for years but when they check the address of the wallet they still see the amount of Bitcoin they own

[apogio]

I have actually created a thread a while ago.

Feel free to check it out: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5446374.0

[dothebeats]

It could be like that, although in this time and age, the number of coins in circulation doesn't affect the price action that much. There are a lot of factors that add up to the overall valuation of bitcoin, and available supply is one of them. Say for instance, the lost coins were to be found, would those owners want to let it go at the current price? Would they bring those coins into the market ready for sale? If not, then nothing changed, basically. They are still artificially limiting the available supply of bitcoin in the market by keeping those at their disposal.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

Actually, it's not your theory but Satoshi's. He said that lost Bitcoin should be considered a donation to the Bitcoin technology or network.
For your question, it depends on the amount of Bitcoin that is being discovered. If it's a huge amount of Bitcoin that is being discovered and all is being placed on sale, then it definitely will fall the market a bit but not the Bitcoin network, after some months or a year, the market can still begin to recover again. Some months ago, there was a huge amount of Bitcoin discovered from a hacker; I can't remember the figure accurately, but I guess it was about 50,000 Bitcoin, and then the price of 1 Bitcoin was still trading below $30k, but look at Bitcoin today; the price is up again.



Cheers 🥂, Dr.Bitcoin_Strange 👺👺

[KingsDen]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

How do we even know the lost bitcoin and differentiate it from the bitcoin in the strongest hands.
I have seen in many situations that the bitcoin found in a certain address was tagged lost by many people, but after so many years it got moved to a hot wallet.  Let us just assume that no bitcoin is lost and have a peace of mind.
However, the success of bitcoin doesn't depend on the amount of lost bitcoin. There is no need to bother ourselves much about that.

[Wend]

I read some old threads about lost Bitcoins ND this question has been on my mind ever since
If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price . I saw in those threads that lost Bitcoins are considered a donation to the Bitcoin network. so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

The amount of bitcoins lost so far is negligible, and if all of them are found and recovered from their former owners, it will be good news for them. In terms of price, if they sell, it will affect the bitcoin price in the short term, but in the long run, it will have no effect. Supply affects the price of a coin, but it is not the only factor, most rely on demand for pricing. Look at ETH it has an unlimited supply, but its value is not small.

[adaseb]

Yes it would cause the price of Bitcoin to go down. Imagine if satoshi starts to unload his coins. Obviously people would panic and sell since he owns tons of coins.

Back on those days a coinbase block reward was 50Btc that alone is over a million dollars. Back then you didn’t need much power to mine a block that like. So if some old miner recovers his wallet and starts to dump 1000 BTC then obviously Bitcoin will drop.  

[OcTradism]

Yes it would cause the price of Bitcoin to go down. Imagine if satoshi starts to unload his coins. Obviously people would panic and sell since he owns tons of coins.

Back on those days a coinbase block reward was 50Btc that alone is over a million dollars. Back then you didn’t need much power to mine a block that like. So if some old miner recovers his wallet and starts to dump 1000 BTC then obviously Bitcoin will drop.  

Panic in the crowd is biggest effect. People who get access to old bitcoins that are considered as lost bitcoins will not be stupid to dump all their bitcoins in one sell order on the market. They will do it in OTC market, not at centralized market and will not do that in a single day.

With whale alerts from on-chain trackers and quick speed of new circulation on social media, the crowd will feel very panic when they see massive amount of old bitcoins on the move from old address to new addresses or read speculation and fud that those old bitcoins will be dumped on market soon.

If I own very old bitcoins and recovered my access to those bitcoins recently, I will do my research on how to sell those coins with less effects on market price as possible. It will help me to maximize my profit so I will spend time to think about selling strategy.

[Despairo]

It's only work in theory, but the reality isn't always like that.

Let's assume someone have recovered his 10,000 BTC, do you think he will sell all of his coins when he already have a good job or business that he can make good amount of money? most likely he will only sell small piece as low as 1 BTC to congrats himself and continue to hold the rest.

We shouldn't only happy for people who're lost their coins, but we should be happy for people who're keep holding Bitcoin regardless the price is.

[Pandu Geddon]

so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

a decline that occurs only if the Bitcoin is sold in large quantities and follows the market price. it will certainly make a decline that could have happened in a very short time.
especially if there is prior confirmation that one of the wallets with large enough Bitcoin ownership transferred their Bitcoin to the exchange wallet. this can create negative sentiment leading to panic selling. indirectly the price will decrease either periodically or instantaneously.

[posi]

so if my theory is correct then we should be happy those Bitcoins were lost.

If you lost your bitcoins, would you be happy? With this in mind, I believe that when you lose your bitcoins, many other people will be happier instead of sending you condolences.

But it is not wrong to assume that the scarcer the supply of bitcoins, the higher the price of bitcoin will increase, and if in case those lost bitcoins are recovered, it will definitely negatively affect the bitcoin price. But in my opinion, that effect is negligible in the long run as we still only have 21 million bitcoins for 8 billion people. In my opinion, 21 million bitcoins is not enough for the world if bitcoin is legal and in demand like gold.

[Zaguru12]

If the lost Bitcoins were for instance recovered will the price of Bitcoin drop  because in theory it would affect the amount of Bitcoin in circulation which will lower it's price .

Let me correct you a bit, I think this lost coins are already in circulation since they are mined, they are actually part of the 19 million plus coins in circulation. So in logic the only way they say it makes others bitcoin slightly worth more is because it is not sold off and the only way a price is affected is when the coin is sold off, as more of it is sold off it would reduce the demand which will Also affect the price. So if a large amount of bitcoin is recovered today and the institution or investor decides to sell them off then would shake the price. This too will just be a temporary shake just like those that happens when a big exchange runs into problem and people start selling off their bitcoin.

This price dump will only be for a short period because ones the buyers of these coins, save them up and hold on to them again, then they begin to go scarce again and the price will return to normal price

[Blitzboy]

Consider this. Recovered Bitcoins could increase supply and potentially lead to a price drop, yes. But we need to recognize that Bitcoin's value proposition isn't based purely on its scarcity. It's also about its security, decentralized nature, and potential as a hedge against inflation. Being assertive here, I want to say that the wretched loss of Bitcoins is unfortunate, but not something we should celebrate. Lost Bitcoins don't "donate" to the network; they merely reduce the circulating supply. So, being skeptical about your theory, I'd say let's not cheer on these losses. Instead, let's use these incidents to remind ourselves of the importance of secure storage practices. After all, it's better to be melodramatically safe than to be painfully sorry.

[TheUltraElite]

Lost Bitcoins come from wallets with lost private keys, so those coins come off from the available liquid market and cannot be sold till someone gets the private keys. Assuming they sell the coins and if the amount is a significant one, only then the market might drop.

The person who lost the coins will not be happy about it. The rest of the people can be - however that is a very malevolent thing to say, being happy on someone's loss.

Hence we should always know how to keep our coins safe and not leak the keys to any site or person