2011-06-13
allinvain wallet theft
25,000 BTC
then $621,750 · now $2.07B
An early miner's wallet file was stolen from his computer; 25,000 BTC moved out overnight. The first big theft in Bitcoin's history.
Fate: Never recovered.
Hacks & losses
The biggest bitcoin hacks and thefts with BTC amounts, value then and now, and what happened to the coins. Plus lost coins and the Pizza Day story.
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Totals
Stolen (BTC)
1,083,001.8
Worth at the time
$1.07B
Worth today
$89.59B
Recovered or found (BTC)
361,157
9 incidents. Today's value at $82,725 per BTC (Coinbase). Mt. Gox counts its 850,000 BTC reported missing; 200,000 of them were later found. Silk Road recovery is capped at the amount stolen. Coldcard 2026 uses Galaxy's confirmed 1,778.84 BTC.
Biggest BTC hacks and thefts
2012-09
Silk Road withdrawal exploit (James Zhong)
50,000 BTC
then $537,000 · now $4.14B
Nine fake Silk Road accounts and 140+ rapid withdrawals tricked the marketplace into releasing about 50,000 BTC.
Fate: Seized by US authorities on 9 Nov 2021 (about 50,676 BTC); Zhong pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2022.
2014-02-28
Mt. Gox
850,000 BTC
then $495.6M · now $70.32B
The largest exchange of its time stopped withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy; about 850,000 BTC were reported missing after years of undetected theft.
Fate: 200,000 BTC were later found in an old wallet. The trustee began repaying creditors on 5 Jul 2024 (about 142,000 BTC owed).
2015-01-04
Bitstamp
<19,000 BTC
then $5.4M · now $1.57B
Hackers drained the exchange's operational hot wallets of fewer than 19,000 BTC.
Fate: The exchange covered the loss; customer balances held before the suspension were honored in full.
2016-08-02
Bitfinex
119,754 BTC
then $72.5M · now $9.91B
More than 2,000 unauthorized transactions sent 119,754 BTC from Bitfinex to the hacker's wallet.
Fate: US authorities seized 94,643 BTC in Feb 2022 and 16,514 BTC more later. Ilya Lichtenstein admitted the hack and was sentenced to 5 years in Nov 2024.
2018-09-14
Zaif
5,966.1 BTC
then $38.7M · now $493.5M
Attackers broke into the Japanese exchange's hot wallets and took 5,966.1 BTC plus BCH and MONA (about ¥7 billion in total).
Fate: Not recovered; the business was transferred to Fisco in Nov 2018.
2019-05-07
Binance
7,000 BTC
then $39.8M · now $579.1M
A large-scale breach of Binance's hot wallet: 7,000 BTC stolen in one transaction.
Fate: Binance covered users from its emergency SAFU fund.
2024-05-31
DMM Bitcoin
4,502.9 BTC
then $307.8M · now $372.5M
North Korean TraderTraitor hackers compromised a wallet-software vendor and manipulated a legitimate transfer: 4,502.9 BTC lost.
Fate: DMM replaced customers' bitcoin with group loans and later closed the exchange. Attribution: FBI, DC3 and Japan's NPA (Dec 2024).
2026-07-30
Coldcard entropy exploit
≥1,778.8 BTC
then $113.7M · now $147.2M
A build/link error in Coldcard firmware from March 2021 (Mk2/Mk3 4.0.1–4.1.9, plus affected Mk4/Mk5/Q releases) made seed generation use MicroPython's software PRNG instead of the hardware RNG. Effective seed strength fell from 128 bits to ~40 bits on Mk2/Mk3 and ~72 bits on Mk4/Q/Mk5 (Coinkite's preliminary estimates). From 30 July 2026 attackers regenerated weak seeds offline and swept single-sig wallets in several waves; the devices themselves were not hacked.
Fate: Galaxy Research (14 Aug 2026): 1,778.84 BTC (~$112.7M) confirmed stolen from 8,600+ addresses; up to 2,417.35 BTC if unconfirmed footprints and 'Wave 4' are included. Earlier tallies: 1,596 BTC confirmed / 2,055 BTC with Wave 4 (Galaxy, 3 Aug) and ~1,816 BTC (TRM, 5 Aug). 1,531 BTC sat unmoved at attacker addresses; no multisig wallet was hit. Coinkite shipped fixes: 4.2.0 (Mk2/Mk3), 5.6.0 (Mk4/Mk5), 1.5.0Q (Q), Edge 6.6.0X/6.6.0QX. Updating does not repair an old seed.
Reported range 1,596–2,417 BTC depending on what is counted; the total uses Galaxy's latest high-confidence figure.
✅ What to do if you used an affected device
- Check when and on what firmware your seed was created. Affected: Mk2/Mk3 on 4.0.1–4.1.9 and Mk4/Mk5/Q releases before the fix, from March 2021.
- Seeds made with at least 50 fair, private dice rolls are not considered at risk from this bug; a strong, unique BIP-39 passphrase lowers immediate risk but does not fix the seed.
- Update first: 4.2.0+ (Mk2/Mk3), 5.6.0+ (Mk4/Mk5), 1.5.0Q+ (Q), or Edge 6.6.0X / 6.6.0QX+.
- Generate a brand-new seed on the updated device; back it up and verify the backup, wallet fingerprint and a receive address.
- Send a small test transaction, then move the rest. Keep the old backup until the migration is confirmed.
- Consider multisig with devices and entropy from different vendors: no multisig wallet was drained in this incident.
🎤 Talks at Plan ₿ Forum Lugano (Lugano time, CEST)
- 23.10 10:15–11:00 · UTXO Room · Bitcoin Security Is a Spectrum: Lessons from the ColdCard Hack (BTC Sessions, Nathan Fitzsimmons)
- 23.10 17:00–17:30 · WAGMI Stage · Self Custody Disaster – Lessons Learned and What Comes Next (BTC Sessions)
- 24.10 14:45–15:30 · UTXO Room · WTF Is Entropy and How Do You Get It? (BTC Sessions, Nathan Fitzsimmons)
🍕 Bitcoin Pizza Day
On 2010-05-18 Laszlo Hanyecz posted on BitcoinTalk offering 10,000 BTC to anyone who would deliver two large pizzas. On 2010-05-22 someone took the deal, and the 10,000 BTC payment confirmed in block 57,043. It is remembered as the first notable purchase of physical goods with bitcoin, and 22 May is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
There was no regular market price in May 2010. On 2010-08-18, the first day with blockchain.info data, 10,000 BTC were worth about $700.
10,000 BTC today
$827.2M
≈ per pizza $413.6M
Lost coins
Nobody knows the exact number: these are estimates from coins that have not moved for years, plus well-documented individual losses.
Chainalysis, 2020: coins unmoved for 5+ years
3.70M BTC
today ≈ $306.08B · About 20% of the supply at the time; Chainalysis treats these as likely lost. dailyhodl.com ↗
Chainalysis, 2017: low–high range
2.78–3.79M BTC
today ≈ $229.98B–$313.53B · 17–23% of coins mined by then. finance.yahoo.com ↗
James Howells
8,000 BTC · $661.8M
A hard drive with the keys went to the Newport landfill in 2013. The UK High Court dismissed his claim to dig it up in January 2025.
bbc.co.uk ↗Stefan Thomas
7,002 BTC · $579.2M
The keys are on an IronKey drive; he has used 8 of 10 password guesses, after which it wipes itself (NYT, Jan 2021).
nytimes.com ↗Genesis block reward
50 BTC · $4.1M
The 50 BTC reward of block 0 is not in the UTXO set and can never be spent.
mempool.space ↗BTC amounts from the victim's own statement, court/DOJ/FBI documents or the cited report. USD 'then' = BTC × blockchain.info daily price on that date; USD 'now' = BTC × live spot.