Guy recovers $4.5M in BTC bought for $2k on a dead 2012 exchange

[henmark]

That feels a lot of losses that you have never recovered but then, looking at the brighter side and can't complain with that situation that it's better to have those two rather than have nothing back.

I don't think we can call that a loss, because a loss would be to get less money than what your coins were worth back then, or at least less than what you had invested, but if you are getting coins worth more than what you were holding at that time, you are not at a loss, but it's just that if you could get all your coins from back then, then it could give you a great boost because their worth must be way higher in the present time. As Og said that he couldn't complain, it simply means that he was somehow satisfied with what happened despite the fact that he would have been delighted if he could get all his 15 bitcoins.

But with this story that they have seen and the guy successfully able to recover his, I guess many will start to know the process and will pay any share they'll be asked for as long as they get anything from what they officially have left on those exchanges.

I don't think things are going to work the same way for everyone. Him and every other user of that exchange who managed to get their funds back after so many years were probably lucky that the law firm managed to find the wallet and then gain access to it, because in most cases when exchanges shut down, nothing can be found after that, especially in recent times when they know how to handle all these things properly before closing down.

[m2017]

Here is a link to the story, for those wondering what the op is talking about:
https://www.gate.com/news/detail/british-man-recovers-33m-in-bitcoin-after-12-year-loss-23913301

Thanks for the link. It shed some light on the situation and clarified the story a bit. Still, a lot remains unsaid.

As I understand it, CEL Solicitors tracked down one of the owners of Intersango, who held a wallet containing 5,500BTC (allegedly his personal funds), and who was apparently forced by a lawsuit to return the money to the story's protagonist, Chris. I have my doubts about whether that 5,500BTC was truly personal money rather than funds belonging to former Intersango users (since the exchange shut down amidst serious issues). It’s also surprising that those bitcoins hadn't been spent over all these years. This guy really should have spent them; now, former Intersango users will likely bury him in lawsuits.

An interesting detail from the story: Chris was persuaded to invest in bitcoin by a friend who claimed it would become a "huge phenomenon". Sound familiar? Almost everyone here has probably had a friend like that.

The miraculous recovery of lost bitcoins after decades is remarkable. It’s like discovering lost treasure or a hoard, but for the digital age.

[AgriTrack]

He was probably just lucky, firstly because that law firm did the tracing, and then because he still had the paperwork or records for the purchase, and thirdly because the bitcoins were still lying around in a wallet and weren't just used by the people behind the exchange. Generally, when a platform decides to stop their operations, they will ask their customers or users to withdraw their assets before a specific date, and they also say that they can contact them even if they miss the given deadline so that they can get their assets, and I wonder why the guy didn't do any of that and how he lost access all of a sudden.

If an exchange stops their operations and still stays around for about 2 years, almost all their users should be able to get their funds withdrawn. So based on this, I don't think every person can be that lucky, or to make is more simple, most people won't even have such situations because the first thing they will do when an exchange announces they are closing down is to withdraw their assets and secure them. He probably just bought them and didn't look back for a while after the amount reached $5400 and he thought he will come back later, but I still wonder how he missed the exchange shutting down.

[KingsDen]

... it's just that the man was lucky to get back coins from the dead Exchange and was able to prove ownership through the bank, maybe that was when he bought cheap BTC on the exchange.

Extremely lucky, I must add. He's lucky to also be in a country where institutions work and things are done transparently. I don't forsee that level of work happening with institutions in my country. It would be an unending story.

No doubt, the dude (Chris) will have a blast this Christmas.

You know the full story? I'm gonna search for it and read.

But the dead exchange never had an owner? Or the owner died. Trust you understand why I am asking. If the exchange was dead, the owner would on low key sell the coins and use the funds. Why were the funds still seated in the exchange wallet for good 15 years.

Was it a forgotten coin, or the exchange owner lost access or they deliberately left it that way. The whole thing is not connecting.
For my country, the institutions involved will even take the funds and tell you that it is irrecoverable. It is good to live in a sane country that has a working system.

[noorman0]

-snip-

He needed old bank records going back almost 15 years just to prove the coins were his. Most people don't hang onto paperwork for a $2k buy they wrote off as a loss over a decade ago.

Judging by the amount of the purchase, that person appears to have been quite wealthy for his time. As you noted, financial records from that era would typically be lost by now; it would be great if someone had the habit of keeping such records.

I think there are some key details missing from this story, specifically, how that $5.2k  remained in the possession of the former exchange owner.

[Z-tight]

An interesting detail from the story: Chris was persuaded to invest in bitcoin by a friend who claimed it would become a "huge phenomenon". Sound familiar? Almost everyone here has probably had a friend like that.

Yeah, we've all been there, even though for some of us, BTC was already a 'big thing' before our 'friend' told us about it.

I have my doubts about whether that 5,500BTC was truly personal money rather than funds belonging to former Intersango users (since the exchange shut down amidst serious issues).

I also expressed the same doubts in an earlier post, some of that money must belong to their former customers. And i believe if further investigations are conducted, there would probably be other wallets somewhere that still holds customer funds of this defunct exchange.

The miraculous recovery of lost bitcoins after decades is remarkable. It’s like discovering lost treasure or a hoard, but for the digital age.

You can say that again, Chris has said he would buy a new home with his recovered funds and also hold some of the funds for the long term. It makes me happy that BTC can help people achieve some of their dreams.

[Chinesebaby]

Came across a story about a British investor who bought bitcoin back in 2011/2012 through Britcoin, which later became Intersango, a UK exchange that stopped trading in late 2012 and went fully offline by 2014. He put in around $2,000, watched it grow to $5,400, then lost access when the exchange died. He figured it was gone for good.

A law firm (CEL Solicitors) used crypto-tracing tools and found a wallet tied to former Intersango users holding over 5,500 BTC, worth around $421M total. His share came out to about $4.5M, since he'd bought under $4 per coin back then.

It's actually a good news to hear about this user who was able to recover his lost bitcoin after 15-year period. However, one big question i think people needed to ask was how was the law firm nameed "CEL Solicitor" was able to have access to the 5,500 BTC worth $421M belonging to the last crypto exchange named "Intersango", or could it been it was the law firm who later bought the lost exchange? Or how exactly? Because i'm yet to understand how they were able to have access to those bitcoin even after tracing those wallet, since if those wallets belonged to non-custodian bitcoin wallets, it diffinitely would have been impossible for anybody to have access to it. or unless those wallets were wallets belonging to other existing exchange like Binance or Coinbase, whereby access would have been granted through the court of law.

[retreat]

Anyone here have funds stuck on a long-dead exchange from back then? Did you ever try tracing it, or just let it go?

There are definitely people whose assets are stuck in exchanges that have gone bankrupt, but the problem is that these people might have already forgotten about it or are too lazy to deal with it, maybe because of the complicated claims process, or the fact that they don't think it's worth the time and effort. I also had Bitcoin that was stuck on one of the platforms that went bankrupt, but because the amount wasn't that significant I just left it there and eventually forgot about it, if I'm not mistaken maybe the value is now double from when I first deposited it.

But I agree with what some people here have said, this man was lucky to be in a jurisdiction where the regulations were relatively strict. If this had happened in a place with gray or not strict regulations, then that man would probably have been left to deal with the hassle of trying to recover those assets on his own, with little to no legal protection and possibly very high processing costs.

[Mpamaegbu]

~

You know the full story? I'm gonna search for it and read.

The user below, as quoted, shared a link to the full story 👇

Here is a link to the story, for those wondering what the op is talking about:
https://www.gate.com/news/detail/british-man-recovers-33m-in-bitcoin-after-12-year-loss-23913301

[TheButterZone]

Here is a link to the story, for those wondering what the op is talking about:
https://www.gate.com/news/detail/british-man-recovers-33m-in-bitcoin-after-12-year-loss-23913301

https://www.gate.com/news/detail/british-man-recovers-33m-in-bitcoin-after-12-year-loss-23913301 says https://coinpaper.com/35080/stock-market-today-sp-500-and-dow-jones-slip-as-oil-rates-and-september-risk-pressure-wall-street for "View Source" which has https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/bitcoin-found-3m-uk-wallet-cryptocurrency-5HjdgXC_2/ as its main source
LOL

[blockman]

He was probably just lucky, firstly because that law firm did the tracing, and then because he still had the paperwork or records for the purchase, and thirdly because the bitcoins were still lying around in a wallet and weren't just used by the people behind the exchange. Generally, when a platform decides to stop their operations, they will ask their customers or users to withdraw their assets before a specific date, and they also say that they can contact them even if they miss the given deadline so that they can get their assets, and I wonder why the guy didn't do any of that and how he lost access all of a sudden.

Maybe he doesn't care at all and just accepted that it's lost forever as intersango has closed. And yes, it's likely that he's just some lucky guy and able to recover the funds that he's got there and whoever did the tracing did the great job there. Fate is with him and favored him on this one and that money is good for his retirement already and can fund a lot of things. It will never be the same for the other users who's got some huge fund left in the oldest exchanges ever existed. While this is a good news for the former intersango users, there's a chance for most of them to get that recovery of their funds.

[r_victory]

I don't think I have any lost cryptocurrency remnants on any exchange (not that I remember); most of the ones I use are still active, and those that closed, I zeroed out my accounts. This guy managed to recover his share; I hope others can too. That's why it's important to keep records of your financial activities; you never know when you'll need them.

[The Cryptovator]

Makes me wonder how many old exchange wallets from that era are just sitting there untouched. Anyone here have funds stuck on a long-dead exchange from back then? Did you ever try tracing it, or just let it go?

If the old crypto exchange didn't go scam, then it would be possible to recover through a legal way. Good to see the person eventually succeed in accessing his funds. Scam exchanges won’t respond to situations such as this, but legit exchanges have to protect their users' funds instead of spending them for themselves.

But if there are more such users who lost funds on the exchange due to shutdown, then they might file a case. The exchange team has to answer, or they might be punished as well. I haven’t tried to trace something like that or never thought this way. Users have to trace or any other agency who knows how to do this. Shouldn’t let up anyway and must take legal action.

[Hazink]

This is in a society where the law is working, and it's also one of those rare stories which we don't find frequently online and in our local country many people could have long forgotten that money and counted it as his loss and moved on, and some of those old exchanges don't even leave any trace to how people can claim their money even if there was might absolutely not be enough evidence to claim ownership, anyway congratulations to the man as this is a life changing recovery for him.

[abel1337]

I've got curious on how did dead/bankrupt exchanges handled keeping the unclaimed funds on their possession. Intersango was gone for so many years now, and I'm thinking on how did the owner or the staffs kept the bitcoins or other coins. I honestly don't know what kind of move do exchanges do after they filled for closure or bankruptcy.

I also wonder how did the owner feel over the years, about bitcoin appreciating value like crazy while he the owner has the full control of the wallet.

[sunsilk]

That feels a lot of losses that you have never recovered but then, looking at the brighter side and can't complain with that situation that it's better to have those two rather than have nothing back.

I don't think we can call that a loss, because a loss would be to get less money than what your coins were worth back then, or at least less than what you had invested, but if you are getting coins worth more than what you were holding at that time, you are not at a loss, but it's just that if you could get all your coins from back then, then it could give you a great boost because their worth must be way higher in the present time. As Og said that he couldn't complain, it simply means that he was somehow satisfied with what happened despite the fact that he would have been delighted if he could get all his 15 bitcoins.

Yes, it is not technically a loss and that's why I've said it 'feels' like a loss but it's not since the recovery has been successful and he still got a lot and able to spend it well.

But with this story that they have seen and the guy successfully able to recover his, I guess many will start to know the process and will pay any share they'll be asked for as long as they get anything from what they officially have left on those exchanges.

I don't think things are going to work the same way for everyone. Him and every other user of that exchange who managed to get their funds back after so many years were probably lucky that the law firm managed to find the wallet and then gain access to it, because in most cases when exchanges shut down, nothing can be found after that, especially in recent times when they know how to handle all these things properly before closing down.

Yes, won't be the same for the other cases. I guess on this particular case have got the attorney's the good job and whoever they have worked with.

More than a decade of pursuance means dedication they have for the case and they didn't let go of it.

[EL MOHA]

But if there are more such users who lost funds on the exchange due to shutdown, then they might file a case. The exchange team has to answer, or they might be punished as well. I haven’t tried to trace something like that or never thought this way. Users have to trace or any other agency who knows how to do this. Shouldn’t let up anyway and must take legal action.

I wanted to say this that they are definitely going to be paying lots of people most especially if this news goes viral. I think the only thing I think will save the Exchange a little bit will be them actually asking for the victims papers to prove their ownership which I am very sure most of the victims wouldn’t have at the moment and I think without this evidence even if the exchange are sued they can actually reject the victims claim. But it will be really a bad experience for them if most people actually have evidence.

I think with the way blockchain analyst are coming up of recent cases like this will be up in the news more often, people might be hiring some of this institutions to help trace something like this in future

[Rabata]

We often hear of cases where an investor faces huge losses due to his negligence. In reality, everyone should be careful from their own position, especially in financial issues. In the above discussion, if that person did not have that bank information stored with him, he would not have been able to prove his Bitcoin and would not have dreamed of owning such a huge amount of Bitcoin, although he would have regretted it but there was nothing he could do. Moreover, no one expected that such a wealth would be found after so many years. Since that person had kept his Bitcoin in a centralized exchange, but if he had deposited that Bitcoin in his custody himself, then there might not have been any need to go to anyone. If he got his assets, then he is definitely lucky because he had such an old bank document.

[Alphakilo]

... it's just that the man was lucky to get back coins from the dead Exchange and was able to prove ownership through the bank, maybe that was when he bought cheap BTC on the exchange.

Extremely lucky, I must add. He's lucky to also be in a country where institutions work and things are done transparently. I don't forsee that level of work happening with institutions in my country. It would be an unending story.

No doubt, the dude (Chris) will have a blast this Christmas.

I must concur because it's a true win and free money that wasn't even put into plan.
There may be others who still have their funds forgotten like that and it is mostly a case of custodial loss vs. key loss. I believe in this case he didn't lose his access or forgot about the documents of his claims and that's why he could recover the investment that has grown.
Those who still have funds lost in Mt.Gox or Cryptsy or some other exchanges that have long folded up can still recover theirs with the kind of technology available today, but only if they still have the keys and have documentation necessary to lay claims to it.