According to analysts at cryptocurrency company Chainalysis, of the existing 18.5 million BTC, about 20% lie in lost or otherwise blocked wallets. In total, this is about $140 billion.
Is this amount reported to anywhere or people are speculation only? I guess there are a lot of early bitcoiners have lost their BTC in such a proceed; either forget the encrypted password or have spoiled their drive, hardware etc. There was another article where I have read it was 1 million. 
Topic: Two attempts for $220 million - page 3. (Read 516 times)
How forgotten passwords prevent crypto millionaires from getting their money. An article by Nathaniel Popper appeared in The New York Times about a programmer who lost his password to an encrypted storage with 7,002 BTC Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes
Stephen Thomas, a San Francisco based programmer, has only two attempts left to guess the password worth about $220 million. This combination will allow him to unlock the IronKey drive, which stores the private keys from a digital wallet with 7,002 BTC. He received this amount back in 2011, when he lived in Switzerland. One of the owners of the crypt simply gave him thousands of bitcoins as a reward for creating an animated video about the currency.
Stefan has already made eight attempts, he has tried eight of the passwords most often used by him unsuccessfully and Stefan is not alone in this trouble. Many people around the world have lost access to their bitcoins due to lost or forgotten passwords. According to analysts at cryptocurrency company Chainalysis, of the existing 18.5 million BTC, about 20% lie in lost or otherwise blocked wallets. In total, this is about $140 billion.
“Through the years I would say I have spent hundreds of hours trying to get back into these wallets,” said Brad Yasar, an entrepreneur in Los Angeles who has a few desktop computers that contain thousands of Bitcoin he created, or mined, during the early days of the technology. While those Bitcoin are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars, he lost his passwords many years ago and has put the hard drives containing them in vacuum-sealed bags, out of sight...."
Stephen Thomas, a San Francisco based programmer, has only two attempts left to guess the password worth about $220 million. This combination will allow him to unlock the IronKey drive, which stores the private keys from a digital wallet with 7,002 BTC. He received this amount back in 2011, when he lived in Switzerland. One of the owners of the crypt simply gave him thousands of bitcoins as a reward for creating an animated video about the currency.
Stefan has already made eight attempts, he has tried eight of the passwords most often used by him unsuccessfully and Stefan is not alone in this trouble. Many people around the world have lost access to their bitcoins due to lost or forgotten passwords. According to analysts at cryptocurrency company Chainalysis, of the existing 18.5 million BTC, about 20% lie in lost or otherwise blocked wallets. In total, this is about $140 billion.
“Through the years I would say I have spent hundreds of hours trying to get back into these wallets,” said Brad Yasar, an entrepreneur in Los Angeles who has a few desktop computers that contain thousands of Bitcoin he created, or mined, during the early days of the technology. While those Bitcoin are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars, he lost his passwords many years ago and has put the hard drives containing them in vacuum-sealed bags, out of sight...."
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