{"id":58588,"date":"2026-03-25T13:49:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/?p=58588"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:03:55","slug":"irish-police-crack-lost-bitcoin-wallet-after-years-they-recovered-cryptocurrency-worth-tens-of-millions-of-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/irish-police-crack-lost-bitcoin-wallet-after-years-they-recovered-cryptocurrency-worth-tens-of-millions-of-dollars\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Police Crack &#8220;Lost&#8221; Bitcoin Wallet. After Years, They Recovered Cryptocurrency Worth Tens of Millions of Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Irish authorities have achieved an unusual breakthrough in cryptocurrency and digital crime. Ireland&#8217;s national Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.garda.ie\/en\/about-us\/our-departments\/office-of-corporate-communications\/press-releases\/2026\/march\/seizure-of-30-million-cryptocurrency-criminal-assets-bureau-cab-europol-24th-march-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> that it has managed to gain access to a bitcoin wallet that had been considered inaccessible for years. Inside were 500 bitcoins worth over $35 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Article Contents:<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-table-of-contents\"><ul><li><a class=\"aioseo-toc-item\" href=\"#aioseo-penezenka-ke-ktere-nemel-mit-pristup-nikdo-3\">A wallet no one was supposed to access<\/a><ul><\/ul><\/li><li><a class=\"aioseo-toc-item\" href=\"#aioseo-prekvapivy-zvrat-po-letech-8\">A surprising turn after years<\/a><ul><\/ul><\/li><li><a class=\"aioseo-toc-item\" href=\"#aioseo-jak-neprijit-o-pristup-ke-kryptomenam-13\">How not to lose access to your cryptocurrency<\/a><ul><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"aioseo-penezenka-ke-ktere-nemel-mit-pristup-nikdo-3\">A wallet no one was supposed to access<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The seized <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/the-trump-family-and-crypto-can-we-expect-scams-from-them\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">crypto wallet<\/a> was connected to Irish citizen Clifton Collins, who had previously been convicted of cannabis cultivation and sale. According to investigators, he purchased approximately 6,000 bitcoins between 2011 and 2012, which he divided into 12 separate wallets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A critical problem arose when Collins lost access to his codes. He had stored them on a single sheet of paper, hidden in an aluminum case inside a fishing rod in his rented home. After his arrest, however, the property was vacated and the document with the keys disappeared. From that point on, the bitcoins were presumed lost forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the cryptocurrency world, one fundamental rule applies: the loss of a private key typically means permanent loss of access to funds. This feature is one of the pillars of blockchain security, which is based on the principle of asymmetric cryptography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"aioseo-you-might-also-liketrust-wallet-adds-new-fraud-protection-7\">You might also like:<a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/trust-wallet-adds-new-fraud-protection-wallet-to-monitor-suspicious-crypto-addresses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Trust Wallet adds new fraud protection.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"aioseo-prekvapivy-zvrat-po-letech-8\">A surprising turn after years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Irish police have now stated that, in cooperation with Europol and its European Cybercrime Centre, they managed to &#8220;unlock&#8221; one of these wallets. Technical expertise and decryption tools played a key role, helping overcome obstacles that were previously considered insurmountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after the announcement, a transaction appeared on the blockchain: a wallet labeled by analytics platform Arkham as &#8220;Clifton Collins: Lost Keys&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/intel.arkm.com\/explorer\/address\/1GPWQv8tUJrYR778LKeuGBM1JFNJWcrNe2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transferred<\/a> 500 bitcoins to the institutional service Coinbase Prime. It was the first movement of funds in over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Arkham&#8217;s data, Collins was estimated to control up to 14 addresses with a total volume of around 5,500 bitcoins, whose value today exceeds $390 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"aioseo-ctete-take-trust-wallet-recenze-ovladnete-sve-kryptomeny-s-duverou\">Read also: <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/trust-wallet-review-control-your-cryptocurrencies-with-confidence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Trust Wallet review: Take control of your cryptocurrency with confidence<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"aioseo-jak-neprijit-o-pristup-ke-kryptomenam-13\">How not to lose access to your cryptocurrency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case of the Irish wallet illustrates one of the most fundamental aspects of the crypto world: the technology is highly secure, but human error can be fatal. The loss of access credentials is one of the most common reasons why people lose their <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/eu-wants-to-switch-off-cryptocurrencies-for-russia-can-all-crypto-transactions-really-be-banned\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">cryptocurrency<\/a> \u2013 and unlike a bank, there is no &#8220;forgotten password&#8221; that can be easily recovered here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The good news is that there are relatively simple principles to prevent such situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The foundation is never to rely on a single storage location. Private keys or seed phrases should always be backed up, ideally in multiple physical copies stored in various secure locations. A piece of paper hidden at home can be just as risky as a digital file \u2013 it can be lost, damaged, or discovered by someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s why hardware wallets are increasingly recommended \u2013 devices that keep keys offline. These significantly reduce the risk of hacker attacks and accidental data leaks. For larger amounts of cryptocurrency, this is now standard practice, not an advanced feature for experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Redundancy also plays an important role \u2013 a combination of multiple security methods. Some users, for example, use seed phrase splitting across multiple parts or multisig wallets, which require multiple signatures for a transaction. While these are more advanced solutions, they are gradually gaining wider awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Digital hygiene is equally important. Storing keys in emails, cloud storage, or phone screenshots ranks among the most common mistakes that can lead to loss of funds. Sharing information is equally risky \u2013 in the crypto world, whoever holds the keys has full control over the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"aioseo-you-might-also-like-crypto4me-review-20\">You might also like: <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/crypto4me-review-regulated-european-platform-for-easy-cryptocurrency-purchase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">crypto4me review<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Irish authorities have achieved an unusual breakthrough in cryptocurrency and digital crime. Ireland&#8217;s national Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) announced that it has managed to gain access to a bitcoin wallet that had been considered inaccessible for years. Inside were 500 bitcoins worth over $35 million. Article Contents: A wallet no one was supposed to access [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":58581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[99,93],"class_list":["post-58588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crypto","tag-bitcoin-en","tag-cryptocurrencies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"aioseo_meta":{"seo_title":"Irish Police Crack \"Lost\" Bitcoin Wallet after Years. #separator_sa","meta_description":"Irish authorities recovered 500 bitcoins worth over $35 million from a \"lost\" wallet through collaboration with Europol. Learn how this breakthrough happened.","focus_keyword":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58589,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588\/revisions\/58589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crypto-globe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}