The following chart clearly illustrates that wallets that were thought to be lost are being reactivated. This raises questions about the estimates that have been made in recent years.
Old Bitcoin wallets keep waking up: How many of the 1.8 million ‘lost’ coins are really gone? On April 15, a long-dormant Bitcoin wallet stirred to life for the first time in nearly 14 years. The wallet owner sent $50 million in Bitcoin to Coinbase, notching a profit of over $3 million on coins that used to be worth less than a penny each. The transaction was unusual but hardly unique. Nearly every week, a wallet from Bitcoin’s early days “wakes up,” raising the question of how many more coins presumed lost could return to circulation. Now, a new survey from Fortune and Chainalysis provides some insight. 🔗 fortune.com |