A student has claimed to have found private keys accidentally HODLed starting as early as 2011 which will unlock more than $4 million in Bitcoin. Even with their newfound fortune, the student said that they will avoid “expensive luxuries” like a new car or house.
It has been reported according to a throwaway account from BitcoinHolderThankU that the Reddit user was able to cash out around $4.2 million in Bitcoin (BTC) after finding the lost keys to 127 BTC in December 22, when the price of the crypto asset was in the $23,000s.
However, they later liquidated the coins in the middle of the bull run.
The Redditor said:
“I spent the next week figuring out how to safely and securely liquidate such a large amount of Bitcoin for the cheapest price possible. I went back and forth between different [over-the-counter principal desks] and ultimately ended up selling all 127 Bitcoins for a price of $33,439.02 per coin minus a 0.15% fee. The net was roughly $4.24 million.”
The report said that they claim to have earned Bitcoin in 2011 or 2012 through “surveys, watching videos, and completing random tasks” to use the coins for purchasing in-game currency for the online game DarkOrbit.
A student visiting grandpa’s house for the holidays claims to have found private keys for 127 #Bitcoin in a truly fortuitous HODLing story https://t.co/ZUMtrUefQb — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) January 11, 2021
The private keys were reportedly never really missing, just forgotten on an older model Dell computer as BitcoinHolderThankU ended up not purchasing the currency.
It has been analyzed that if the Redditor’s account is to be believed, they missed out on $1 million in additional profit by not holding for just a few more weeks. Since December, the price of Bitcoin has passed $41,000 to reach new all-time highs.
BitcoinHolderThankU admitted that they “would not have sold all 127 Bitcoin” if the same situation had played out again.
They said:
“To give myself credit, I did HODL for 8-9 years which is more than the vast majority of crypto users. I definitely would’ve done things differently if I were given a second chance.”
Likewise, the Redditor said that they will avoid “expensive luxuries” and intends to put the bulk of the funds into the S&P 500 Despite their sudden fortune by adding:
“I don’t want to end up like one of those people who win the lottery and blow it all in a matter of months/years […] I’m going to continue living my life normally as I was on December 21st and every day before that.”
Thus, there may still be more than $285 million in Bitcoin lost somewhere in a UK garbage dump after an IT worker accidentally threw out his personal laptop with his keys in 2013.
Source: Cointelegraph