Bitcoin: 500 BTC deemed inaccessible transferred after ten years

For more than a decade, 6,000 bitcoins linked to an Irish drug trafficker seemed partly lost forever. However, on October 20, a new transaction aroused attention around this forgotten fortune. A wallet associated with Clifton Collins transferred 500 BTC, or approximately $41.52 million, to Coinbase Prime. This operation is part of a series of movements which rekindle questions about the fate of funds and missing private keys.

A $41.52 million 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. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported this transaction, which is worth approximately $41.52 million. This movement comes after more than a decade without apparent activity on the funds concerned. It therefore draws attention to a fortune long considered inaccessible.

These 500 units come from a pool of 6,000 bitcoins that Collins had accumulated in late 2011 and early 2012. At that time, the price of bitcoin was only a few dollars. The value of this reserve then increased sharply with the market. However, Collins allegedly lost access to his funds after the private keys that allowed him to control them disappeared.

This transaction does not constitute an isolated event in this matter. Indeed, several transfers of 500 BTC linked to this fortune took place during the year 2026. The Irish authorities also recovered several tranches of these assets. The new movement towards Coinbase Prime thus raises questions about how funds become accessible again.

How Clifton Collins allegedly lost access to his bitcoin fortune

A former beekeeper in Dublin, Clifton Collins is said to have built up his reserve through his cannabis cultivation activities. Faced with the increase in the value of his assets, he would have sought to better protect his funds against the risks of piracy. To do this, he had distributed his 6,000 Bitcoins between twelve separate wallets. Each contained exactly 500 units, according to the account of this case.

Collins then allegedly printed his private keys on an A4 sheet of paper. He allegedly hid this document in the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case. This item was in a house he was renting in County Galway. This storage method was therefore based on the physical conservation of an essential element for access to funds.

In 2017, Irish police arrested Collins after discovering cannabis in his car. He was later sentenced to five years in prison. While he was incarcerated, burglars emptied the accommodation he was renting and his personal belongings ended up in the local dump. The case that would have contained the private keys is missing, potentially depriving Collins of access to his stash.

Irish authorities recover several tranches of 500 Bitcoins

The case reached a turning point in March 2026, when the Irish Criminal Assets Office (CAB) announcement access to a wallet containing 500 Bitcoins. This operation benefited from the assistance of Europol’s European Cybercrime Center. It showed that some funds linked to Collins could still be recovered. However, the available information does not specify how each wallet became accessible again.

Recoveries continued over the following months. At the end of May, authorities seized an additional 500 BTC, then another tranche of the same size in July. On August 28, an additional 500 BTC, valued at approximately $39.56 million, was transferred to Coinbase Prime. These operations have gradually 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 involving a tranche of 500 BTC from portfolios linked to Collins. However, the movements observed do not, on their own, establish that all 6,000 BTC are now accessible. They also do not specify who currently controls each affected portfolio. Monitoring future transactions will allow us to better understand the evolution of this asset recovery.

The new transaction therefore sheds light on the fate of this bitcoin reserve, created more than ten years ago. If recoveries continue, a growing share of funds could come out of inactivity and join institutional platforms. However, the future of the other portfolios remains uncertain. The next transfers will be decisive in measuring the real extent of the assets recovered and clarifying the fate of this fortune.