The news broke two years ago when Rain Lõhmus, a banker from Estonia, admitted he had misplaced a massive amount of Ethereum from the 2014 presale.
“It's no secret that I have a wallet with 250,000 Ethereum units; anyone can calculate for themselves what it's worth,” he casually mentioned during an interview.
Well, based on Ethereum’s current surge, that wallet is now worth roughly $1.2 billion. Yep, you read that right, a billion dollars.
The value has almost tripled since October 2023, when Ethereum was hovering around $1,600. On Wednesday, Ethereum made a spectacular comeback, briefly topping $4,700, and Lõhmus must be looking at that wallet like, "Well, this is awkward."
Crypto Lost and Found: The Tale of Lõhmus’ Locked Wallet
So, what’s the deal with Lõhmus’ lost wallet? According to Arkham Intelligence, aside from a few small transactions, the wallet has remained untouched. Basically, it’s like finding a goldmine and forgetting where you put the key. And let’s be honest, we’ve all been there, well, not with a billion-dollar goldmine, but you get the point.
Lõhmus, reflecting on his unfortunate predicament, admitted that he wasn’t exactly a crypto genius when it came to securing his passwords. He jokingly referenced a small Bitcoin purchase he locked himself out of as a personal reminder of how easily things can go sideways in the world of self-custody.
"I absolutely agree that this is a very weak point of this system, which makes you think that this perfect decentralization has other risks that you don’t usually think about,” he said.
To be fair, self-custody does have its drawbacks; if you lose your private keys, it’s game over. But in Lõhmus’ case, his larger point is that it’s just so easy to lose track of passwords. I mean, this guy went to renew his ID card passwords and joked that if it were crypto, he’d be in “a big crisis again.”
A Very Common Crypto Problem
And he’s not alone. People all over the world are facing the same kind of problem. Some forgot their passwords; others accidentally tossed their hard drives in the trash. The issue has become so widespread that a reality TV show was launched in 2021 for people searching for their lost crypto. Talk about a new genre of drama.
In my opinion, Lõhmus’ story is a cautionary tale for anyone holding crypto: Secure your keys and back up your passwords, because if you’re anything like me, you’ll be locked out of your fortune before you can say “blockchain.”
Anastasiia G
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