TechFlow News, March 25: According to Bitcoin News, 500 BTC—previously deemed permanently lost and linked to Irish drug trafficker Clifton Collins—recently moved on-chain, marking its first activity in nearly a decade.
Between 2011 and 2012, Collins purchased approximately 6,000 BTC using proceeds from marijuana sales and stored them across 12 wallets. He kept the corresponding private keys on paper, hidden inside a fishing rod case located in a rented apartment in Galway, Ireland. After Collins’ arrest in 2017, the apartment was vacated, and his personal belongings—including the fishing rod case—were sent to a landfill.
Subsequently, both authorities and Collins himself believed the private keys had been permanently lost, and the court ruled that the associated assets be confiscated as proceeds of crime. This recent on-chain transfer of 500 BTC suggests these assets may not have been entirely lost after all.
