2 weeks ago
An speech whitethorn person accidentally torched $8.5 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin — that’s 1 of the starring theories aft an unidentified wallet sent 107 BTC to an code from which the funds tin ne'er beryllium recovered.
Conor Grogan, caput of merchandise concern operations astatine Coinbase, said the pain was astir apt caused by an speech that made an mistake during a acold retention transfer.
No Public Explanation From Anyone Involved
Five abstracted Bitcoin addresses carried retired the transfers connected Monday, each sending funds to a long-established pain code opening with “11111,” according to onchain data shared by Galaxy Research.
The determination brought the full magnitude of Bitcoin ever sent to that code to 807 BTC, present worthy adjacent to $60 million, based connected information from blockchain level Arkham.
1111111111111111111114oLvT2 corresponds to Hash160 = 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (twenty zero bytes). Base58Check-encode that with the P2PKH mentation byte and you get this address. Because uncovering a nationalist cardinal whose Hash160 is each zeros would necessitate either… pic.twitter.com/WAii2UbQ0U
— Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) May 27, 2026
The 107 BTC being destroyed made the lawsuit 1 of the biggest reported Bitcoin burns of 2026 truthful far. What made it much striking was the property of the coins — astir of them had sat untouched for much than 12 years, acquired erstwhile Bitcoin was trading beneath $600. At today’s prices, that aboriginal bargain had grown by 12,700%, according to TradingView data.
What Happens When Bitcoin Gets Burned
Bitcoin, dissimilar immoderate different cryptocurrencies, has nary built-in mechanics for removing coins from supply. Burning it means sending funds to an code that has nary known backstage keys — the coins amusement up connected the ledger but cannot beryllium touched oregon moved by anyone.
The pain code utilized successful this lawsuit had been utilized before, including by the task Stacks, which sent 40 BTC to it successful September 2015 for a namespace registration.
Galaxy Research offered respective imaginable explanations for wherefore idiosyncratic would locomotion distant from an $8.5 cardinal windfall.
The steadfast raised the anticipation of taxation nonaccomplishment harvesting, funds destroyed due to the fact that of ties to amerciable activity, oregon adjacent a mistaken transportation made by an artificial quality agent.
This is fascinating to me. Someone bought 107 btc 12yrs ago, stomached nine, yes nine, 50%+ downturns, watched it turn to $8.5m lone to nonstop the coins this wk to a pain acct, permanently destroying. Smh. Theories incl: kidnapping, taxes, religion, divorce, rogue AI agent.. https://t.co/BWPk2eH1Dg
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 27, 2026
No wide transportation was recovered betwixt the burned coins and immoderate known hacks oregon cyberattacks.
Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas weighed successful arsenic well, floating the thought of a rogue AI agent, a kidnapping scenario, oregon tax-related motives down the destruction.
Theories Pile Up But No Answers Yet
The pain code itself has a documented history. Reports accidental the code was utilized by Stacks years earlier this latest transaction, giving it a verifiable on-chain grounds arsenic a destination for deliberate coin demolition — not conscionable a random wallet.
Analysts person yet to onshore connected a definitive reply for what happened Monday. The individuality of the sender remains unknown.
Featured representation from Unsplash, illustration from TradingView
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