Coinbase Executive Tracks Down $322K Worth Of Forgotten Crypto Locked Away In Ethereum Classic Wallet

Conor Grogan, the Head of Product at Coinbase Inc COIN, on Wednesday, detailed how he uncovered a substantial sum of dormant cryptocurrencies and successfully reached out to their owner. 

What Happened: Tracking down and reclaiming dormant wallets is no easy feat, as Grogan discovered. 

He embarked on his quest by meticulously sifting through the “ETC rich list,” searching for whale accounts that had remained untouched. 

After identifying approximately 20 addresses holding more than $250,000 worth of Ethereum Classic, he dedicated himself to examining each one, determined to find a means of contact. 

When the Ethereum blockchain underwent a significant fork in 2016, resulting in the creation of Ethereum Classic investors who held the standard Ether ETH/USD on the blockchain received an airdrop of the same amount of ETC. 

This airdrop was essentially a distribution of ETC tokens to ETH holders at the time. However, a considerable number of recipients never interacted with these acquired funds, leaving them untouched and dormant, as explained by Grogan.

Although he encountered numerous “dead ends” along the way, Grogan’s tenacity eventually led him to stumble upon an address with the notable prefix “0x475.” 

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Why It Matters: What made this discovery even more intriguing was the presence of a cryptocurrency called “EOSDAC,” which had been airdropped to Ethereum holders back in 2018.

Grogan utilized the airdrop amount and snapshot date to establish a connection with the holder’s EOS wallet. “As it turns out, this EOS wallet has quite the history!” Grogan said. 

Delving deeper into the wallet’s history, led him to uncover the legal name associated with the elusive 0x475 ETH address.

"It turns out that the owner of 0x475 had their life savings stolen by a hacker in 2019 and was in a legal battle with their cybersecurity provider as well as with Bitfinex," Grogan said.

He successfully made contact with the unsuspecting owner, delivering the long-awaited news of their rediscovered wealth.

Price Action: At the time of writing, ETC was trading at $19.42, down 0.33% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

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