Bitcoin: 500 BTC deemed inaccessible, transferred after ten years

For more than ten years, 6,000 bitcoins linked to an Irish drug dealer seemed partly lost forever. Yet, on October 20, a new transaction reignited attention around this forgotten fortune. A wallet associated with Clifton Collins transferred 500 BTC, about 41.52 million dollars, to Coinbase Prime. This operation is part of a series of movements that raise questions about the fate of the funds and the missing private keys.

A 41.52 million dollar transaction after ten years of inactivity

On October 20, a wallet linked to Clifton Collins transferred 500 BTC to Coinbase Prime, Coinbase’s institutional trading platform. The blockchain analysis company Lookonchain reported this operation, which represents approximately 41.52 million dollars. This movement comes after more than a decade without any apparent activity on the concerned funds. It thus draws attention to a fortune long considered inaccessible.

These 500 units come from a batch of 6,000 bitcoins that Collins had accumulated at the end of 2011 and early 2012. At that time, the bitcoin price was only a few dollars. The value of this reserve later increased significantly with the market. However, Collins is said to have lost access to his funds after the disappearance of the private keys that enabled control.

This transaction is not an isolated event in this case. Indeed, several transfers of 500 BTC linked to this fortune have occurred during 2026. The Irish authorities have also recovered several portions of these assets. The new movement to Coinbase Prime thus raises questions about how the funds became accessible again.

How Clifton Collins allegedly lost access to his bitcoin fortune

A former beekeeper in Dublin, Clifton Collins reportedly built his reserve through cannabis cultivation. Given the rise in the value of his holdings, he sought to better protect his funds against hacking risks. To do this, Collins divided his 6,000 Bitcoins into twelve distinct wallets. Each contained exactly 500 units, according to the account of this story.

Collins is said to have printed his private keys on an A4 sheet. He reportedly hid this document in the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case. This object was in a house he rented in County Galway. This storage method thus relied on the physical preservation of an essential item for accessing the funds.

In 2017, the Irish police arrested Collins after they found cannabis in his car. He was later sentenced to five years in prison. During his incarceration, burglars emptied the apartment he rented and his personal belongings ended up at the local dump. The case that allegedly contained the private keys disappeared, potentially depriving Collins of access to his reserve.

Irish authorities recover several 500 Bitcoin batches

In March 2026, the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) announced that it had gained access to a wallet containing 500 Bitcoins. Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre aided this operation. It indicated that some funds linked to Collins could still be recovered. However, available information does not specify how each wallet became accessible again.

Recoveries continued in the following months. At the end of May, the authorities seized an additional 500 BTC, then another batch of the same size in July. On August 28, 500 more BTC, valued at about 39.56 million dollars, were transferred to Coinbase Prime. These operations progressively changed the status of a fortune long associated with the loss of private keys.

The October 20 transfer thus represents the fifth operation this year concerning a 500 BTC batch from wallets linked to Collins. Nevertheless, the observed movements alone do not establish that the entire 6,000 BTC is now accessible. They also do not specify who currently controls each concerned wallet. Monitoring upcoming transactions will provide deeper understanding of the evolution of this asset recovery.

The new transaction thus highlights again the fate of this bitcoin reserve, built more than ten years ago. If recoveries continue, an increasing share of funds could leave inactivity and join institutional platforms. However, the fate of other wallets remains uncertain. Upcoming transfers will be critical to measure the real extent of the recovered assets and clarify the fate of this fortune.

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